Not disagreeing with you- but I'm always amazed at how shocked people are too discover that their standard cable boxes have had microphones in them since ~ the early 90's, with the capability to send recordings back over the cable lines. Not retroactive (that we know of), but still.

And that the FBI and police have actually used them (with warrants) to get criminal convictions. Publicly available court transcripts confirm this.

That's the legal use. Who knows how the NSA has actually been using those in situ capabilities.