VER-XIII-0008
“My smart home listens to everything I say and I just accepted it.”
Convenience is the bait. Surveillance is the hook. You traded privacy for the ability to turn your lights on with your voice. That's a real trade, not inherently wrong, but only if you made it consciously. Most people didn't. They just clicked "Accept." A Grithosian reads the terms. Understands the cost. Decides whether the trade is worth it.
Your Practice
Go through every smart device in your home. Review the privacy settings on each one. Mute the ones you don't actively use. Delete the voice recordings stored in your account, every major platform lets you do this. You don't have to throw them away. You have to own what they're doing.
The Architects
“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
Hedy Lamarr, Reported in Hollywood press, 1941 (partial in Hedda Hopper's column, April 1941; full version in Harold Heffernan's column, August 1941); later collected in Richard Schickel, The Stars (1962)