I’m tied to all 3, it’s fine. The people wringing their hands and obsessing over it seem more masochistic to me.
I have all my email in docs in google, I have something like 7 echo’s scattered around the house, I have a Facebook Portal and a Quest 2. All of these things make my life easier or bring joy into it. Avoiding these things would make my life measurably worse. I am disappointed that Apple, as the most privacy conscious of the group, sadly hasn’t built any real competitors to any of these devices.
Aside from your response being rather unkind, I don't think we can dismiss the meat of his point so easily.
I avoid most of these things to the extent I am reasonably able. I use a minority email provider, mapping provider, cloud storage provider, backup provider, webdav, caldav, browser (on desktop and mobile), search engine, ebook reader, lock down my android phone in various ways to diminish google's control of it (my work uses Google so to be employed by my current employer I must use google), don't have a facebook account or a twitter account, try to use windows with most of the reporting back turned off and accounts signed out, don't use voice assistants at all, etc.
I think it's the right thing to do, and generally I think it's a good idea to use non dominant service providers as a way to encourage competition.
All this, and I'm sure all the big companies have huge amounts of data about me from when I mess up or from how my life impinges on other people who are more thoroughly tracked.
This definitely makes my life significantly more complex, and various things that are trivial for others are a bit of a palaver for me and for many people I know it'd be completely unreasonable. It's a trade off I've decided to make, but the comment you are referring to highlights the convenience, and I don't think it's wrong.
I have a child and the Alexa is clutch. If she wakes up early we can play her sleepy-time music from anywhere in the house. When it’s time for bed I can dim her bedroom lights with my voice. We use the portal tv to video chat with our family on the other side of the country. The Quest 2 is simple I can drop in and play anywhere in my house for 15 minutes without worrying about steam/windows/whatever updates.
I have all my email in docs in google, I have something like 7 echo’s scattered around the house, I have a Facebook Portal and a Quest 2. All of these things make my life easier or bring joy into it. Avoiding these things would make my life measurably worse. I am disappointed that Apple, as the most privacy conscious of the group, sadly hasn’t built any real competitors to any of these devices.