Is it the additional data you give them to enter the giveaway?

Basically. You’re telling TP-Link that you’re a business that’s interested in selling their products. In return, their Sales team now has your information and can pester you tell you all about the latest TP-Link products.

Additionally, they’re putting their products directly in the hands of customers who could become even bigger customers. If you, as a company, decide you like the product, then you’re probably going to buy more of said product.

Finally, TP-Link is being selective about who gets the freebie—they’re not just handing them out willy-nilly. From the fine print:

Offer valid only for SolutionX partners. One Insight S445 (2.8mm) camera per qualified SolutionX partner. Approval is required, and TP-Link reserves the right to verify applications

So there’s probably some sort of “legitimacy threshold” you have to clear in order to get the goodies.

Alternatively, check out Consent-O-Matic, which applies the most privacy-preserving features by default, and lets you choose more specific preferences. It’s also open-source.

I run Opnsense on a Proxmox VM (I followed this guide). I’m quite pleased with it. Opnsense is probably going to be more secure than any consumer router firmware, but you’re going to have to make a bigger upfront investment in hardware. I had never used Opnsense prior to using this system, and the fact that I’m running it on Proxmox is a huge benefit. If I’m ever about to do anything I’m unsure of, I can snapshot the VM in Proxmox. If my router config breaks as a result of my tinkering, I can easily restore from the snapshot.

The pfsense devs has acted like jackasses towards the opnsense gang.

And toward their users. Ask the wrong question on the pfSense subreddit or forum and expect to get lit up. The Opnsense community is much more helpful and inviting in my experience.

Pretty killer specs on paper. In my experience, these AliExpress boards have a bunch of minor annoyances that add up. Examples of those annoyances from my experience include:

• a complete lack of support after the sale (you’ll never get a BIOS update, or if you do, you have to get it from some dodgy Chinese Dropbox-equivalent),
• a lack of 4-pin chassis fan headers,
• outdated SATA controllers that don’t let your computer reach higher C-states, and
• non-standard CPU coolers that you’ll never be able to replace if they fail.

You’re right. See my edit.

Report it to the FTC.

Edit: I named the wrong F agency. It looks like the FCC might be a better option: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002234203-Unwanted-Calls-Texts-Phone