It works!

Probably only until some apparatchik sees this post and contacts Amazon.

An interesting thing happened the other day. I was chatting with wifey about getting a video door bell thing near our Amazon Echo.

The next day I got an email from the ADT security company with a special offer on video door bell thingies.

I've never received any email from ADT before. Google put it in my Primary email instead of promotions. It was conspicuous and jarring.

Before everybody screams that having Amazon echoes in your house is stupid... I don't care. All the tech giants already know everything about me and what I do and think. I'm just not a big enough deal for them to harass me. And I really hardly ever say anything about anything of note out loud. And we use it all the time to turn lights on and off, get the weather, play music etc.

No judgement to you Lapstrake. I unplugged my Alexa a few years ago. Like you, I used it mostly for music and asking questions when I didn't want to stop what I was doing and look on my computer. I was sitting and reading a novel one day (there was no noise in the house for 4 or 5 hours) and suddenly Alexa turned on and called out a code and said, "Processing recording now". It freaked me out so much that I unplugged it and put it in a drawer.

Just tried...its now BP paid the largest criminal fine...