One of my kids has asked for a Google Home Mini. But hold up, Santa.

It’s been three years since Amazon debuted Echo, a speaker that came with a talking digital assistant named Alexa, which you can ask to order a pizza or play a song or a great many other things. Since then, such smart speakers have proliferated, with 24 million expected to sell worldwide this year.

Amazon said last month it was bringing Alexa to the workplace, where it can help set up conference calls or track appointments. Google has priced its Home Mini under $30 for the holiday season. And Apple is coming out with its own competitor, the HomePod, next year.

But I’m not sure I’m ready. I just bought an Atari and a record player, so I’ve been reverting to the technology of my youth. But more important, there are some secrets I don’t want within earshot of an open microphone. I put on a Barbra Streisand album the other day. It’s not something that I’m proud of, but these are complicated times and it happened. How do I explain that to Alexa?

Of course, we’ve been trading off privacy for the wonder and convenience of technology for years. How comfortable we are with gradually ceding more data to the machines is probably inversely correlated with how many times we’ve watched “The Terminator.” And I’ve watched it. A lot.