Why We Can't Break Up With Big Tech
Gizmodo's Kashmir Hill spent six weeks trying to cut Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple out of her life completely. "Spoiler," she says. "It's not possible."
Kashmir Hill wanted Amazon out of her life, completely.
It was the first week of a six-week experiment in living without tech giants. She had a virtual private network, or VPN, that would keep her devices walled off from any Amazon product. She would avoid Whole Foods and power down her Kindles.
But she had a problem. A small, chipper problem.
Alexa.
She couldn't connect her Amazon Echo to the VPN. But if she just unplugged the smart speaker, someone, like her husband, might forget and plug it back in.
Then a colleague suggested
