“Hello? Is this thing on?”

I certainly enjoy reading about these voice assistants more than I do using them.

You bought smart speakers over the holidays. Now what are Amazon and Google doing with your data?
Ultimately, the choice to keep a smart speaker around comes down to what you’re getting out of the product. For some people with physical disabilities or intellectual differences, smart speakers can make household tasks easier or provide an engaging presence in daily life. For tech junkies like my friend, the sheer joy of commanding a smart home network might be enough. For Hoffman-Andrews, though, the benefits of a speaker don’t outweigh the costs. He bought a couple of products for testing, but he admits he couldn’t actually bring himself to set them up. Being able to ask a speaker to dim the lights or play a weather forecast just didn’t seem like a good enough tradeoff for giving companies access to his home.

“Is it normal to have cameras and microphones pointed at you and your guests? Currently the answer is mostly no,” he says. “These devices aim to change the answer to yes.”