Interesting point about it creating demand! Note the rise of privacy browsers like Brave and Dissenter.

I totally agree with you about these smart devices, AKA IoT (Internet of Things) devices. One of the most frustrating things about them to me is there is really no reason they have to work the way they do. You can make a door cam that lets you see what's on your front porch without the video having to be be first uploaded to the smart door cam maker's "cloud" for aggregating, cataloging, analyzing and sharing with third-parties like the government and advertisers. You could make all of these devices so they directly connect to your computer or phone without sending data through an intermediary over the Internet. This goes for smart refrigerators, plugs, and every other "smart" device they are trying to sell us. IoT is a con-job to get people to give away even more of their privacy and allow even more intrusive data collection.