with all the info available about rampant blanket NSA spying/access, and the content of most privacy policies, the basic operating procedure anymore should be to assume that all devices are pwned.
if you're cool sprinkling always-on microphones around your house for convenience, more power to you.
> You probably carry a microphone almost everywhere you go.
That's projection; some of us value an expectation of privacy more than minor conveniences.
> it can certainly be made to do so
Except that isn't the intended purpose of the device. You still have an expectation of privacy. When you normalize an expectation that you might
be recorded by 3rd party devices, the 4th Amendment longer applies[1].
This isn't about technology, "targeted advertising", or the NSA. Blinded by shiny baubles and a handful of not-strictly-necessary conveniences, you're normalizing social expectations to accept regular automated recording the "details of a private home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion"[2].
Defending internet microphones because they are convenient isn't useful or convincing. Lots of things sound good when you only consider the benefits.
It is of course a trade-off. However having accepted one, doesn't mean I should accept the other. I still prefer to have one potentially listening microphone around, than have two.
if you're cool sprinkling always-on microphones around your house for convenience, more power to you.
I can't do it.