> Both are devices that listen to their surroundings.
That's the key, though - Echo/Home are listening passively, by design. Your phone is listening actively, but can be activated remotely to listen passively if you are the target of surveillance by a state actor.
>but can be activated remotely to listen passively if you are the target of surveillance by a state actor.
As it gets cheaper and easier to retain and analyze the output of the former the bar for the latter decreases.
I really don't want to get flagged for the "random" searches and audits every time in interact with a government service in 2020 just because the way I talk checks the proper subset of boxes for some AI to set the "probably doesn't like us" bool on my row to true.
That's the key, though - Echo/Home are listening passively, by design. Your phone is listening actively, but can be activated remotely to listen passively if you are the target of surveillance by a state actor.