I mean, it's roughly the same level of exposure you run into literally every minute you're out in public anyway - all those phones around you have microphones, and more and more, they're always listening in exactly the same fashion. This is how always-on "Hey Siri" or "Okay Google" works.

Which isn't to say it isn't frustrating, just that your frustration at your friend is misplaced - they're not exposing you to anything which you aren't already exposed. If your fear is that these tech companies are going to misuse casually-overheard conversations from these devices, they're just as likely to use it from all the phones you're near.

If your fear is that your friend is going to use this tech, however, maybe you need better friends. There's nothing stopping an unscrupulous friend from putting plain-old audio recorders through their house anyway.

Discussions held in private can be very different from the ones held in public.

I think it's very human to want privacy. Having confidence that someone isn't listening/watching to you can have a tremendous effect on how you act. It's just human and I'm not sure if you can change that by telling people that it's not feasible in today's world. I know I acted differently in private when I was just a kid - it's not something I learned, but was natural to me.

The tech would actually be fine if it was provably contained to the local network. As soon as it leaves the local network, I can't trust it - doesn't matter if Amazon/Google says they don't use it for X purpose.

> they're always listening in exactly the same fashion. This is how always-on "Hey Siri" or "Okay Google" works

Afaik it is not, actually. The devices are taught to recognize the wakeup words (like "ok google") completely offline, and only the stuff recorded afterwards gets uploaded to the cloud of contractors.

The phones listen in the same fashion as the in-home devices, is what I mean - they both work on the wakeup words. So if you're mistrustful of the in-home devices, you should be petrified of your morning commute.

AIUI the whole point of this drama is that a lot of these conversations were obviously "random", as in: not triggered by the wakeup words.

Scary though isn't it ? With increasing moves in these companies to govern human thought, I can imagine a time when it'll be extremely difficult to have any independent thought of your own. It's already this way in the academia/media, where anything outside the norm is considered 'blasphemy'.

Your only recourse is to stop going to that friends house. Also, remember you and others still have a internet connected microphone in your pocket at all times. A zero day means you could be owned at any time.

Tell the truth or remain silent. Try not to incriminate yourself.

Telling the truth about your religion or sexual orientation can get you beaten or killed in many parts of the world.

That's not likely to happen in the present day US, but there are plenty of less dramatic but definitely undesirable things that can happen when your home audio gets passed around to a bunch of random contractors.

Sorry, I was being sarcastic but it really doesn't read like it in retrospect. Totally agree with everything you wrote.