That's all YOU want. But I wouldn't mind setting up my system so the garage door triggers other events. For instance, it might turn on the smart lights in the adjacent hallway. It might send a notification to my phone if I am not home. Just because you don't want something doesn't make it useless or others. Just don't buy it.

This will result in increased profits
This will not result in decreased prices
This will not result in improvement of products
This will not result in reining in predatory third-party sellers and scammers
This will not result in Amazon cutting a dividend
This will result in profits being redirected to executives and expanding their monopoly into new sectors

I have been wanting to drop Amazon Prime for quite a while. But, my I have had my father in law on our plan for the past, oh 12 years or so. He is so generous and never asks a thing of anybody. He hates change, so I have been keeping the subscription REALLY just for him, content that he can take that for granted.

Now my reasons to keep Prime have dropped to zero, so cancel it I will.

I might have found value if they didn't

Give us prime music free with the service, then pull the rug, by making it a paid add-on
Give us prive video with great exclusive content, only to start charging us by making us watch ads, or by paying more
Offer items with "free shipping" only to mark them up the same price as the shipping costs.

I do worry that there are services I didn't realize were tied to Prime, but I'm happy to find out the hard way.

Big Dark Money on both sides of the aisle.

One Nation — boosts Republican/Conservative Senate allies.
Majority Forward — boosts Democratic/Liberal Senate allies.
Americans for Prosperity — Koch network; backs conservative/Republican causes.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce — pro-business; often Republicans, sometimes centrist Democrats.

All of these have strong digital outreach spending. It's hard to pin this to actual "influencers", but it definitely funds advertising, and influencers are definitely paid, if not directly. Though, if I had to wager, i would put my chips on the fact that they are also being paid directly by both sides. But i'm willing to admit I cannot cite direct evidence of that.

I wouldn't cry if rewards went away. But I definitely benefit from them. I don't know what my interest rate is, but my effective rate is zero. I pay the card in full every month. If I can't, I don't make the purchase. Never paid a fee in over 20 years.

Luckily, in my adult life, I never had to fund an emergency on credit. That's not a privilege everyone has.

They are more likely interested in the talent, not the specific thing he created. The money prizes listed are not that big when you look at the big picture of fostering and acquiring top talent.

Also "opt-out by default" is called opt-in.

It certainly is. Of course opting in is implicitly buried in a twelve page legal blurb:

"By using this... you agree to opt in to ... and if we make something up later, you opt in to that too"

There probably should be a more targeted law because this landscape is ridiculous.

Exactly. If the device can be a vector for attack, there should be whitelists, not blacklists.

And at a higher level, if those prohibitions were bypassed, maliciously or innocently, the data that was accessed was not secure. One employees computer shouldn't have this much power over company data and infrastructure. The real failure is up the chain. This is a CTO-level failure.

Further, why isn't this being described as a failure higher up the chain?
Why should an employee have the power to cause this much destruction, even if the result of an error?
If your company can crumble because of a single lower-level employee, you have issues with your security landscape.