Once it would have sounded like the most feverish nightmare of a doom-mongering sci-fi author. A tiny robot in every single home, carefully mapping out the rooms, learning the sound of your voice, saving all this information for unknown purposes.

But when US company iRobot began selling RoombaA robotic hoover that cleans houses independently using motion sensors and cameras. vacuum cleaners in 2002, people flocked to buy them. And Amazon EchoA series of speakers produced by Amazon that are voice-activated and can be asked to carry out tasks. They are powered by Alexa, a personal assistant AI developed by Amazon. speakers have been wildly popular. Given the chance, it seems, people will willingly stock their homes with sinister, spying robots themselves.

Now, Amazon has moved to buy iRobot. Some worry that this is just another way for the megacorporation to invade our lives and expand its power.

Amazon certainly seems to have few qualms about its use of data. Echo units have been caught recording private conversations and sharing them with Amazon without their owners' knowledge.

That is why some fear its acquisition of iRobot is about more than cleaning floors. They believe Amazon wants to use Roombas to harvest still more data on people's voices and preferences.

All in all, it is no wonder people are more and more pessimistic about the future of online privacy. In 2020, a survey found that 80% of people in the UK believe they no longer have any control over their personal data, and 61% think it is too late to take back control.

But some say we should not be so fatalisticThe idea that all events are due to fate and cannot be changed with action.. The more we come to believe that the loss of our data is inevitable, they think, the less we will fight for our privacy. They believe the government needs to step in to prevent big tech companies from abusing our data.

But others argue that we are responsible for our own downfall. We bought the Roombas and the Echoes, they say; we have only ourselves to blame.

Yes: Tech companies are simply moving too quickly for the rest of us to catch up with them. We barely understand their technology. We might as well resign ourselves to a future without privacy.

No: Regulators do have tools to rein in the tech companies. Some in the US are hoping to stop Amazon in its tracks using anti-trust legislationLaws designed to prevent companies from forming monopolies.. We can introduce the right to privacy. The fight is not over.

Or... The state will not protect our data because it stands to gain from what Amazon and others are doing, by buying the data they harvest to keep us under surveillance. We must take action ourselves.

Roomba - A robotic hoover that cleans houses independently using motion sensors and cameras.

Amazon Echo - A series of speakers produced by Amazon that are voice-activated and can be asked to carry out tasks. They are powered by Alexa, a personal assistant AI developed by Amazon.

Fatalistic - The idea that all events are due to fate and cannot be changed with action.

Anti-trust legislation - Laws designed to prevent companies from forming monopolies.