FOR a country that has done everything constitutionally possible to avoid having a king, America is producing them at an impressive rate.

There is King Donald (Trump), vanquisher of impeachment; King Mike (Bloomberg), who graciously joined the other Democratic hopefuls in a televised debate for the first time last night in Nevada; and King Jeff (Bezos), Amazon chief executive.

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most powerful of all – Donald the President, Mike the media mogul, or Jeff the richest man on the planet?

Mr Bezos is the most confusing, judging by two takes on him this week. In the first, a Panorama investigation, Amazon: What They Know About Us, the tech titan and his company were judged by some observers to be data vultures feeding off customers’ information, their activities posing a threat to democracy and freedom. One retailer, who alleged his small business was ruined after getting involved with Amazon, even compared the firm to the devil. We saw also a high street bookseller, in tears, locking up her shop for the last time. She could not compete on prices and speed of delivery, so the shop had to close.

But then there was the other Jeff Bezos, the one who gave $10 billion (£7.7 billion) of his fortune to the fight against climate change. If you have a good idea about how to save this spinning rock from rising temperatures, the Bezos Earth Fund wants to hear about it.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” the entrepreneur wrote in an Instagram post.

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“This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs – any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world. We can save Earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organizations, and individuals … ⁣⁣⁣Earth is the one thing we have in common - let’s protect it, together.” Just when you were wondering what you had in common with someone worth $130 billion, along comes the answer.

So which one is the real Jeff Bezos, a superhero out to save the planet with dollars instead of special powers, or the Jeff Bezos whose company is deemed a threat to democracy and freedom?

Questioning the motives of those extremely wealthy individuals who give to charity has become commonplace. While praising Andrew Carnegie for giving fortunes away to help and educate others, we nevertheless remember that he made his money through the blood and sweat of workers, as did every capitalist of his age. Many are the universities who have accepted legacies, only to be taken to task generations later by students questioning the morality of how the money was made.

In Bezos’s case, customers have come to look anew at Amazon, and the rest of the big tech companies, and wonder what has been invented on our watch.

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Yet in most cases the customer willingly gave over the information they now deem so precious. Who put all those personal details into Facebook? Who has ever read the terms and conditions or privacy policy? How many of us have bought an Alexa smart speaker and speak to it more often than we do aged relatives or other members of the family?

Alexa is a perfect example of our love/suspect relationship with technology and, by extension, those who have made vast fortunes from it. In January it was reported that sales of Alexa-enabled devices had passed the 100 million mark. Though Amazon did not break the total down into its speakers and other products, the extent of the tech revolution that has taken place in our homes is breathtaking.

I remember when smart speakers first appeared. There was no end to what you could ask Alexa to do, from order dog food to play your favourite music and find out what the time and temperature was anywhere in the world.

How clever we thought we were, how much time we could save. Then the whispers and doubts began. Sure enough, it wasn’t just the machines listening. Humans were doing it as well.

Big tech said only a tiny fraction of conversations were monitored, and that it was only done to improve the service, but customers were unnerved and rightly so.

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The biggest joke of all was that people had paid for the devices they now accused of infringing their privacy. One former Amazon executive interviewed by Panorama said he still had Alexas in his home but he turned them off if he wanted to have a private conversation. I expect after watching the programme that many more will do the same.

There is a backlash building against Big Tech, with the race on to see how governments can tax and regulate them better.

If one was cynical, Mr Bezos’s setting up of a $10 billion fund, like Mark Zuckerberg’s call this week for greater regulation, can be seen as the tech titans once again trying to stay ahead of the curve.

Doing good things, saying the right things, to reframe the debate in their favour; tinkering at the edges when what they really should be doing is paying more tax, assuming greater responsibility for their actions, and reducing their own carbon footprint. Anyway, how much difference can $10 billion make given the size of the problem faced?

The Amazon chief executive is not the only fantastically rich person having his actions questioned. Mike Bloomberg, whose charitable giving down the years makes the odd billion here and there look positively peanut-sized, is feeling the heat too, with a rival for the Democratic nomination, Elizabeth Warren, calling him an “egomaniac billionaire” and saying it was a “shame” he was able to “buy his way into the debate”.

It is right to be cautious about where vast wealth comes from and what it is used for, but at the same time we should give credit where it is due. Mr Bezos did not have to offer $10 billion, and his action, together with those of other wealthy individuals handing over enormous amounts, should be welcomed.

Now about those taxes ...