[Victoria]

I must admit that I love the convenience of my smart speakers, and I really enjoy streaming Amazon music. I assume they analyze my voice requests for marketing purposes. I realize Amazon could also eavesdrop, but I’m not particularly worried about it. I doubt they do, but if anyone did listen in, they’d quickly move on to something more interesting.

The internet is everywhere. I think every person has to choose who they’re going to dance with. I’m comfortable with Amazon’s agenda - it just wants to get better at selling me things. That already happens every time I use a search engine, or place an online order somewhere. But I’m not naïve, and I protect my privacy. That’s why I’ve never joined Facebook or Twitter, etc.

Unfortunately, many serious breaches are beyond our personal control. A few years ago, a bank notified me that they’d ‘misplaced’ a digital device with thousands of customers’ info on it, including mine. Then, two years later a car company notified me of a similar breach. The province next door had it’s healthcare system hijacked for ransom. It’s very common - the horses have left the barn. So though I’m not worried about Amazon, I do worry about state sponsored / bad actors penetrating our data systems, compromising critical infrastructures, ransom-wear, etc. I also worry about deliberate disinformation campaigns. Collectively, we really are quite vulnerable.