Set up instructions were quite clear and I have no complaints except that the print in the booklet was TINY. Yes, you do need the separate app. No, it doesn't seem to harvest crazy amounts of information from you. It doesn't gather any worse information than any other app you choose to download on your phone and is probably less invasive to your privacy than Facebook.I wanted to give this 5 stars but I can't. Here's my only complain so far (I'm 3-4 months in; I have two of them now). Every once in a while, when you tell Alexa to turn off a single outlet it crashes the whole strip. SO annoying. I don't know if this is a glitch with the strip itself that would be resolved by only using the app; that is not why I bought it. I specifically wanted it to work with my Echo Dots. So, it's irritating to turn off a lamp and lose the whole strip. You can tell Alexa to turn the whole strip back on... and it does... and then you can turn just that one outlet off. But it defeats the purpose of it saving you time etc. if you're in a hurry and have to stop only to command Alexa to turn everything back on again just so you can turn off ONE outlet. I have never had the reverse problem, though (as in, I've never gone to turn something on and had the whole strip turn on).Otherwise, I'm happy. The price was very good, the quality seems better than competitors' (based only on reviews; I never tried them). I would buy this brand again IF there was no substantially better alternative that didn't cost 2-3 times as much. However, it would be awesome if the company would fix that glitch. It happens often enough that it's a true annoyance. It would estimate it happens every 20-25 shutoffs. I have only noticed it with one outlet but it's the one I turn on and off most often. Also, it has happened with BOTH strips, but one seems worse than the other for whatever reason. I'm not sure if there's a pattern with which outlet it is (as in, placement in the strip). FWIW, I'm on iOS.