Before now, my cats talked about me

shopping lists, timers and listening to music, cnn, msnbc (through tunein radio) and others. I know, now Amazon knows everything about my fantastic adventure filled life but as Tralfamadorian philosophy says "so it goes".
Some questions I have asked Alexa:

What is the meaning of life? Get a quote from Elanor Roosevelt

Are vampires real? Yes

Are you Skynet? No, don't worry

Covid claustrophobia makes interactions with Alexa even weirder...

Using two on my desk set up in stereo speaker mode is cool if you like normal levels of music and sound...

Just my observations... I forgot, I also control some "smart" light bulbs and power outlets with Alexa...

Thanks for telling me about tunein radio. I can listen to MSNBC

I asked a few test questions. Alexa does not know how old my grandchildren are. lol

Maybe I can take my dot to my grandkids, and we can try the stereo effect. I guess I could try the laptop and dot together.

Alexa is great, and we love ours. However, these devices are collecting boatloads of info about users. There are plenty of articles on the internet about how you can control the data flow and maintain privacy as much as possible.

Here's one example from cNet: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/8-ways-to-protect-your-amazon-echo-privacy-while-working-from-home/#:~:text=Go%20to%20Settings%20%3E%20Alexa%20Privacy,Recordings%20to%20Improve%20Amazon%20Services.

I logged out of my Amazon account, and the ring is purple. If it is still connected, someone will hear a lot of cussing as I get through my day

If I want to be in a room with a microphone, I'll go to Moscow and check into a hotel that's specifically for American tourists.

And before anybody asks, I've disabled Google Assistant on my smartphone, and my laptop is a 2007 model without a camera, and no microphone plugged in.

But I've finally drawn the line with companies that allow you to control (at least to a large degree) the data that they take from me (Google, Amazon) vs. those that don't (Facebook being the worst).

For me, it's a balancing of convenience vs. loss of privacy. As long as I know what privacy I am giving up and can limit to an acceptable level, I'm willing to accept the trade-offs.

That being said, there needs to be more governmental controls over privacy and data issues than exist today. The EU is much better about this than the US.

It's an illusion of security. And I have an associate degree in computer network administration.

The best thing to do is limit your exposure physically as much as possible, software always has back doors. And if you're doing anything that you wouldn't want the government to know about, unplug any device that needs AC current, and remove your battery from your smartphone before you do it.