I see no difference, privacy-wise, between the two. I don’t care how they’re advertised, I care what they’re capable of.

I'm sure you can appreciate the difference: press a button to talk to Siri vs Siri is always listening.

The latter seems crazy to me, on a phone, cylinder, laptop or whatever device it's implemented.

If that was the case, nothing. But we have enough evidence to believe it's not. While having the device listen, even though it's been explicitly configured not to, is a bit more of a stretch.

>Are you just worried about accidental activation?

That could be an inconvenience too, but I'm more concerned with malicious intent.

If you’re concerned with malicious intent then I really don’t understand the difference. If the device maker is trustworthy then you’re fine either way. If they’re malicious then you’re screwed either way. A setting for “please don’t listen” isn’t going to make the slightest bit of difference if they’re malicious. M

Nor should anyone I think.

It seems to me that smartphones are significantly worse. You can unplug your smart speaker or kick it off your WiFi and be confident that it can no longer hear you. Smartphones have batteries and cellular data connections. Also they’re usually with you at all times, even when you’re away from home.

A lot of people talk about it, they’re just laughed or shouted down. There’s also the argument that mobile phones undoubtedly offer a number of incredibly useful tools, not the least of which is a primary phone line. I think anyone would be hard pressed to argue for commensurate utility from Alexa or similar products.

“Networked device with microphone records and uploads your voice” might create reactions such as: yeah, what did you expect, how else would it work?

“Networked device with microphone records and uploads your voice even when explicitly told not to” is a lot worse. Company X is lying to us!