The seventh season of Game of Thrones didn’t exactly break the Internet, but its July 16 premiere was a near thing. Not because, between live audiences, DVR recordings, and online subscriptions, over 26 million viewers watched the episode—a record-breaking first for the TV network. This number would be a lot more impressive if it included all of the people who watched the episode illegally. With pirate viewership included in the mix, it’s safe to say over 100 million people tuned into the premiere.

Despite the term pirate, there’s no need to navigate your way through the uncharted waters of the dark web to get your fix. Millions of ordinary people can find streams and downloads of their favorite show with a few clicks and swipes, all from the safety of their home.

People are watching without paying HBO for that right. Some are hosting Game of Thrones viewing parties as they use TV boxes like Android Box to stream the channel straight to their 4K television. Others are downloading it to watch later on their iPads, tablets, and smartphones in preparation of long commutes, wait times in doctors’ offices, and even parks.

Modern day piracy has its risks—but not necessarily those that you might think. Thankfully, unlike the pirates of old—or even Euron Greyjoy of Thrones—online piracy doesn’t risk death. Unless, perhaps, you live in North Korea.

There is, however, a very real threat to your watching device of choice. Say you take your iPhone 6s or Surface Pro onto the bus or subway with the intent to watch the latest ep as you commute to work. The sweaty, rough, and overcrowded conditions of public transit aren’t ideal for a lot of reasons, but it can cause damage to your device. One wrong step or push as people pile on can catapult your tablet or smartphone out of your hands.

Unless, of course, you’ve wrapped your device in a skin from the people behind dbrand. Their engineers understand the conditions you’re up against when taking public transit, so they’ve made tablet and iPhone 6s skins that enhance the grip of your device. These skins can also help protect against scratches and scuffs that may occur on the subway car — or anywhere your day takes you. Luckily, you can find iPhone 6s skins online as you pirate the next Game of Thrones episode. But you aren’t safe just yet, as there comes another unique risk with your criminal behaviour.

HBO hopes to crack down on those streaming and downloading their creative content illegally, and they’re being vocal about their objectives. Compared to the very real and very scary ‘fire and fury’ promised by Trump, the threats laid out by HBO are tame. In fact, they’re nonexistent as the letter received by pirating fans is the equivalent of ‘um, could you maybe not?’

For the innocent few who haven’t heard, HBO’s anti-piracy partner alerts the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of any IP addresses under its charge involved in downloading or streaming the series without “authorization”. From there, the ISP relays a message to the customers in question, stating HBO owns the exclusive rights to the show and those who download it illegally are infringing on copyright laws. It also warns viewers that downloading Game of Thrones from unknown sources could result in a security breaches—as if the television network actually cares about your computer or tablet’s security.

HBO finishes its spiel by stating:

“We also encourage you to inform the subscriber that HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally.”

For the guilty streamers and downloaders, this will read similar to the letter they received last year as HBO hoped to squash piracy around the premiere of its sixth season. While individuals and small websites may throw caution to the wind, the might of HBO was impressive enough to pull thousands of links offline.

Despite its best efforts, HBO has no hope of eliminating piracy. MUSO, a piracy monitoring firm based out of the UK, studied the internet traffic of over 23,000 well-known piracy websites. Nearly 85% of these sites posted unauthorized streams of the episode. Meanwhile, the premierewas pirated 91.74 million times around the world.

According to MUSO, the stat is just an estimate. The latest technical innovations in TV boxes make it incredibly easy for even novice streamers to pirate movies and TV shows from around the world. These boxes also make the act incredibly hard for firms like MUSO to track. Unlike downloading, which can be tracked by ISPs, streaming is often encrypted. These security measures muddy the waters for those hoping to track piracy, so there could be hundreds, thousands, even millions more people watching Game of Thrones illegally.

Though HBO knows you’re doing it, there’s not uch else they can do about your streaming habits beyond their letters. With numbers comes safety, so even if you received your very own letter from HBO, you’ll be safe to stream or download your favorite series.

Amazon Echo and Google Home are smart speakers that can understand your commands and perform tasks for you. It short, they are voice-powered personal assistants on hand at all times. They are used by individuals of all kinds, but what many don’t know is that they offer a wide variety of benefits for families with children too. Here are a few ways that Amazon Echo and similar devices can benefit your family.

Pure Search Engine Power

This is no doubt the most useful tool that Alexa and Google Home has to offer. At any point in time, you or your child can activate the device with one word such as “Alexa” and then ask any question. This is extremely useful for studying, cooking, or anything else. Imagine your child is doing homework, and they come to a point where they have a question to ask. Normally, they come to you and you are forced to search your brain for the twenty-sixth president of the United States. Now, all you have to do is say, “Alexa, who was the twenty-sixth president of the United States?” and she will spout out an answer like, “The twenty-sixth president of the United States was Theodore Roosevelt.” She may even add some extra quick facts, such as birth, death, and famous quotes. Cooking and need a conversion, just ask her, “How many tablespoons are in a cup?” or “What’s a good substitute for sugar?”

Conversation Pieces

When everyone gets home from school, work, and practice, it’s nice to sit around the table and talk about your day. But sometimes, it’s hard to find a topic after the overviews are finished. With these devices, you can say things like, “I’m feeling lucky,” or “give me a random fact.” This is a great way to get to know each other even better. Alexa loves to get the conversation going with fun info. You can even tell the device to give you trivia questions for a fun game or solve a debate with a dice roll. Want to learn a language together? Alexa is a great teacher. Ask her to say anything in nearly any language you can imagine.

Music on Hand

Whether you like listening to music while cleaning, having a family game night, or even dancing, these systems are there for you. They can use Pandora, Spotify, or downloaded music. You can customize lullaby lists to put your baby to sleep, instrumentals for our child’s singing lessons, or a compiled list of the family’s favorite songs. The best part is that they can be played with just a short command. Not only that, but you can turn it up, down, on, or off with your voice as well. Can’t agree on a song, take turns by naming which song each person wants to play next.

Shopping Made Easy

How many times a week do you hear, “Mom, we need toothpaste!” or “We’re out of cereal again.” With these personal assistants, they can skip telling you and add it to the list with their voice no matter how small they are. It won’t be purchased this way, but Google and Alexa will add them to your phone’s shopping list. You can sync the list to your phone or send it to the kids or your spouse. If you don’t know if a said retailer or grocery store has an item in stock, you can check that too. “Does Wal-Mart have Cap’n Crunch?” There may be more than one way to find out, but none of them are as easy as asking your personal assistant who can have an answer in five seconds or less. If she doesn’t know, she can set your reservations for your favorite restaurant or order a pizza instead.

Total Control

Need to set an alarm for school or work? No problem with Alexa. What about setting a bedtime? Just tell the device that your child needs to go to bed at a set time. What’s even crazier is that you can program her to shut the garage door, turn off the kitchen lights, or even turn the coffee pot on.v

Conclusion

Devices like Amazon Echo and Google home are a complete asset for anyone, but especially families. Not only is the ease of access nice. With less time spent on grocery lists, asking questions, setting alarms, and even turning off the lights, there is more time to spend together. That is always a good thing!