I've just recently set up a Pixel 2 XL straight from factory a few times over the last couple weeks, all in the US. Every time I had to opt in to the background music detection feature, even in the US.
Re:Continuous low-power music recognition
by pavel_lishin on Thursday January 11, 2018 @11:43AM
(#16125298)
I must have toggled it on, then.
Germany has much more stringent privacy regulations than the US does - maybe that's the difference.