The difference is that these are powered by the mains and you wouldn’t see battery drain. With a phone they’d have to give up battery life - from my understanding more than any phone currently could give up and be usable - to be constantly listening. My phone is only really on power when I’m asleep, but this would always have power and be able to listen without me knowing.

Not making accusations but I do think there’s a real difference between a microphone I’m always using and see and care about the battery drain of, and one plugged into the mains with no battery concerns.

Well, Google’s their business model actively encourages using this data for advertising or analytics.

The incentives for Apple to do this are relatively minimal and Google has a track record of hoovering up information on you to target advertising.

Almost as if it’s their entire business...

I'd say the incentives for Apple APPEAR minimal, but in reality you don't have any way of knowing what they're doing or plan on doing long term.

Good enough. Occam's razor applies.

Except Apple is ran by bean counters these days. I mean, they now have “enhanced” the terrible App Store search with terrible ads that regular people confuse with legitimate results.

Heck, Face ID is the perfect ad technology. They can charge based on attentiveness now.