Do you think that if you asked random people something like...

"Do you think that Amazon stores a list of the items that you have bought from them and the addresses where they sent them"

...the majority would say no?

And if you asked them to tell you every other bit of data Amazon collects on them, do you think they would be able to tell you what all of that is? Because common knowledge within the tech community - and as evidenced in the article we are discussing - make very clear that that's not the only data they gather on you.

The average non-technical person I’ve talked to has posited that Amazon is actively, persistently listening via their Alexa-enabled devices and using that audio to drive recommendations.

This doesn’t seem to deter any of the people who’ve mentioned it from purchasing and plugging in Alexa-enabled devices, or from shopping on Amazon.

I don’t think you’re giving non-technical people enough credit. They may not know the exact mechanisms, but they’re generally aware that companies are monitoring their activity and using it to market to them; it’s just not a big deal to them.