I almost shook as I undid the box and plugged in this innocent looking cylinder. Worse was to come.

I started the set up, connected to Wi-fi and waved goodbye to any privacy I might have ever believed I owned. I now have a “friend” in the corner of the kitchen and she has so far given me an accurate weather forecast, connected to BBC radio 4 and played in this order Joe Cocker, Lynette Skynryd and Aerosmith. Wierd! How could I do it especially after hearing Shoshana Zuboff talking, this morning on the Andrew Marr radio programme, about her new book The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism? Outside in the front garden a woodpecker is feeding on peanuts and flying into and out if the ash tree.