There's a way to prevent this, but I doubt any of the major players will do it:<p>Allow the owners of the device choose their own "activation words".<p>Leave the default "branded" activation sentence as-is, but allow the user to customize it as they see fit. This won't happen, of course, because of the whole "branding" thing (like the user is going to forget which service they are using?).<p>This just hammers another nail into my decision not to get one of these devices; instead, it would probably be easier and better to build my own, using a raspberry pi or something similar for the "front end". I'd probably still have to use one of the big players search engines or such, but I could also hit anything else I wanted to, as well.<p>I tend to wonder if this is going to be the trend? Those who have or desire more freedom will have to build it themselves, and those who can't or won't - they'll just have to shoulder the burden of not being as free...<p>There are ways the State could make DIY uneconomical or near-to-impossible (and I don't think the scenario is realistic anyhow) - but if that ever happened - if things ever got to the point of it just being too much - I'll just go offline. I've got more than enough data and junk to keep me amused for the rest of my life. Plus, I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment, either.