Does my Sonoff S31 ZB require cloud

I’m reading about Chinese hacking and getting rid of cloud-based solutions but I’m reading conflicting things about the S31 lite.

I’m not concerned that the Chinese government is spying on me, I’m just not that important. I’m also not going to open up the device and start soldering and changing it to a Wi-Fi solution.

But it does concern me that if the smart plug relies on the cloud to function, that if the cloud goes down, the plugs stop working.

What is the truth here. Do my new sonoff Zigbee smart plugs communicate through the cloud in order to work?

Zigbee is a local protocol. On their own, your smart plugs do not need a cloud connection. However, they may be connected to the cloud depending on the Zigbee Coordinator you are using and/or if you have it connected to the Sonoff/Ewelink app.

So if only through homeassistant, and a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle plus (which shows as Texas Instruments CC1352/CC2652, Z-Stack 3.30+ (build 20210708)), am I connected to the cloud?

If you’re only using ZHA or Z2MQTT as your integration, then you’re Zigbee devices
aren’t using the cloud.

Thank you.