my family is moving into a much bigger house than we used to have. we use amazon echos as an intercom system through the announcement feature. because our house is bigger, i’m being forced to get one myself for my room. i haven’t needed one for years because i use their app on my phone and i can see their announcements as a notification and i can also kill off most of its tracking by DNS. unfortunately my parents don’t understand this and are forcing me to get one. what can i do to limit its tracking?
Were I in that position, I would resist, just as much as if they were trying to put video cameras in my bathroom and bedroom.
I would suggest alternatives, and offer to research, order, and install them.
I would appeal to my parents' empathy, try to educate them on the risks of these corporate-controlled hackable devices bring with them, and on the negative impact that surveillance has on human development. I would try to persuade them, and if it came down to it, I would fight. I would look for allies to help: siblings, extended family members, school authorities, counselors... anyone whose views they might respect, both alone and in groups.
If they stubbornly insisted, I would continue to bring it up regularly, both in private and in public. I would make sure that it was a constant drain on their time, and a constant source of resentment, and an issue that they would have to justify not only to themselves, but to the community around them.
And, if I somehow couldn't keep it out of my space or unpowered, I would open it up and disconnect the microphone, or perhaps wire a physical switch to allow connecting it only when needed. (By the way, reed switches exist that can be concealed within a device and activated from the outside with a magnet.)
And then I would continue to fight.