Today, if you use Big Tech's products, as almost everyone in the U.S. does, your actions and speech are being monitored. If you use a mobile device such as a cell phone, and/or a laptop or desktop computer connected to the Internet, or anything else connected to the Internet such as your front door bell, or your thermostat, or if you drive a late-model car that is connected to the Internet, you are being monitored.
I am not saying that you are necessarily actively being spied upon and listened to, but your actions and speech are being recorded and stored in a database in the Cloud somewhere, where it can be retrieved and analyzed at any time by a real person.
For most people, their actions and communications are aggregated and analyzed by computer code, like "artificial intelligence," mainly for the purpose of making money off of you by advertising products and services customized to your personal data, such as your gender, your age, your location, what you watch on TV, your religious and political views, who you associate with, etc.
That's how Big Tech primarily makes its money, through advertising.
But all of that data they collect on you, which today can include everything you say and share on social media, or devices like "Alexa," what you buy including where and when you buy it, what programs and videos you watch, where you drive to, when you turn your lights off at night or turn your thermostat down, and even what you thought were "private" communications, such as social media "private" chats, conversations on your cell phone, or email correspondences on Big Tech's "free" email platforms - ALL OF THIS DATA IS FOR SALE, for the right price.