> You also don't know that you're not being tailed by a PI, that your neighbours are not focusing a mic on your home, or that your dentist isn't on the lizard-p

> You also don't know that you're not being tailed by a PI, that your neighbours are not focusing a mic on your home, or that your dentist isn't on the lizard-peoples' payroll. Totally tangential, so feel free to disregard: This statement reminded me of my experience during my brother's TS clearance (Canada). CSIS readily had accurate data (in surprising detail) about my time spent during a short period they must have observed his family members to use during an interview with him. It was pretty fascinating, mildly disconcerting— but in this case didn't bother me (in the context, I understood why. I certainly wasn't interesting at the time). They only could have captured the data they had by a combination of tailing (however brief or otherwise more expensive much more technical means) and bank records. I was of course none the wiser. Advertisers are another matter. I have a Google Home Mini. It remains unplugged 100% of the time we're not using it. My phone can always go in another room. If we decide to turn it on to play with it (search something benign or play trivia) then we'll have it on. It's good for that kind of thing, and those are useful enough we don't mind letting Google have the little data that might produce.