A lot of people are forking over $50 or more to buy "assistants" such as Amazon's Echo, meaning that they're actually paying the company to spy on them under the guise of helpfulness. Some of the units even feature cameras, so you can be "seen" even in dim lighting conditions. At least in "1984" the ubiquitous monitoring setups were installed by Big Brother.
Many people are starting to become uneasy about all of this; the whole "Internet of Things" is coming to be questioned. Do you really need a smart toaster or refrigerator? Do you need to have Alexa dim your lights for you?
Thanks, I'll do it myself.
Buying one of these "assistants" means that you're paying to abrogate your own Fourth Amendment rights.
