Comment by blacksmith_tb

But they aren't 'always listening' - except for their wake words (yes, I know it's technically possible they really do, and smuggle the data out along with legit requests, but it seems unlikely). So for example the article's author can rest easy if he listens to Barbra Streisand (on vinyl!), Alexa won't be any wiser. Google and Amazon have somewhat different imperatives, Amazon would like to figure how to sell us more things (happily placing orders via the Echo is off by default) while Google would like to figure out how to sell us to more advertisers... (so far blocking keeps that mostly at bay)