# In an op-ed, Professor Amy Webb explains how choosing "smart" home products from Amazon, Apple and Google can lock consumers into a digital caste system

1 Faculty News March 9, 2019 ![The New York Times Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_027320.jpg?itok=W8xBr66g)>

Excerpt from [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/10Webb.html) -- "Because our data are managed by one of these companies — companies that also sold us all the A.I.-powered stuff in our homes — we are unwittingly choosing our tribes. Without realizing it, you are already a Google family or an Apple family or an Amazon family."

[Read more](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/opinion/sunday/10Webb.html)