You'd be foolish to be surprised by this. I unplug my wife's Echo all the time.
When I told my mom how Amazon listens in she could care less because she doesn't have sensative information. I told her that's not the point and it's sad people willingly put up with it plus pay for these devices!
What your wife and many other people fail to understand is that whether or not some piece of information is sensitive is highly contextual. Some innocent piece of information could prove the missing piece of a puzzle to any hostile party attempting to use your information.
Amen!
Preach!
Not surprised at all. I don't mind the advertising aspect since if I'd rather have an ad that's relevant to my interests than not. What bothers me is how often this 'market research' data collection is abused to identify, target and/or take action against groups of people socially or politically.
nothing to hide nothing to fear unfortunately if they know what your going to do/buy because they know all your habits you will suffer economic loss and you won't even realise it!