The rhetorical showdown in Parliament this autumn over tax reform for a small number Canadians who are very wealthy, or only more wealthy than most, will exist because they – and the organizations that represent them – have the money to make it one.

iRobot, the makers of the popular automated vacuum, the Roomba, could to share the data it collects about people's houses to tech companies. In short, that would mean that your private decisions – where you want to put your couch in relation to your TV or fridge, for instance – are, to some extent, no longer private.