Beware of Siri, et al.

More than a vacuum cleaner?

If you are one of those trusting people who believe that Siri and Alexa and that vacuum cleaner rolling around the premises picking up dust bunnies are making your life easier, all I can say is, "Oh grow up!" I would also suggest you read Orwell's 1984 if you haven't yet.

Last night I dined with a group of friends. The six of us all had cell phones within earshot. We talked about possibly taking a Viking cruise along the Danube River. This morning my Facebook stream is full of ads for Viking cruises along the Danube River.

This is nothing new. I often get ads on Facebook for handbags -- having bought a few of them online it's easy to see how that happens, capitalism being what it is. But I have never been on a cruise, Viking or otherwise, and yet somehow my phone "heard" me talking about it last night. I would say this qualifies as alarming.

One can only imagine who or what is listening to everything you say when you have one of those helpful home assistants hanging around. My advice is to trash the thing and get up and do whatever it is that needs doing by yourself. And for God's sake, get rid of that MAGA hat before they come for you.