[ApK]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

So Google is tracking me from Firefox on a work computer routed through a VPN showing me in New Jersey and Firefox on my desktop and has figured out that this user name corresponds with my Google ID on my phone

Possibly. Have you confirmed no leak of info, no possible tracking cookies from anywhere you've ever identified yourself or even just accessed from both systems, and you trust your VPN* provider, Mozilla, and all your OS makers to be far more secure, honest and respectful of their terms of use than the maker of your speaker?

and then waiting until I also speak about it in person before feeding me ads?

Or at least that's when you noticed them.

Or: the Google speaker in my house that are built to listen do listen?

Just pointing out that your anecdotal evidence is far from proof.

Incidentally, there's no dispute that the various assistants, Google Siri, Alexa do listen all the time. That is why they are able to 'wake up' when you give a voice command.

Obviously, that would be more 'water is wet' news. Clearly no one is arguing about that.

The only real question is if the multi-billion dollar ad companies behind at least Google and Alexa are telling you the truth when they say those other conversations are not analyzed.

For them to analyze it, they'd have to capture it and send it home, rather than doing just that with local processing as they claim.
Indeed, as I said, I would be concerned if there was proof they were lying about that. Companies should not make false claims like that, whether it be regarding privacy, or fees, or warranty support, or product sourcing, or most any other promise they make.

But also think about this: A large company with a huge dependency on customer trust outright lies to the public regarding the capturing and transmission of private audio, opening them up to bankrupting levels of civil and criminal penalties all for the purpose of....getting a little more ad revenue for offering slightly more relevant 3rd party ads???
One would think they could be using this contract-violating, criminal wire tapping for more substantial illicit activities, and if so, the last thing they would do is expose it by using it to show you an add for something you just talked about.

Where are the hardware hackers who de-compile the firmware, and analyze packet data exposing all this? It can barely understand it's own name when spoken to it, but this nefarious code is so expertly designed and implemented that no once can find it?

I'm not stating it's impossible, I just need more than anecdotal evidence to accept it as fact.

ApK

*Just an aside, here's a good introductory vid for anyone relying on commercial VPNs for privacy protection: