Critically, “Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft told 404 Media they have no involvement with CMG’s Voice Data tool.”
But more importantly, they can’t listen on your microphone unless you give them permission. It’s not a thing that is technically possible. And like the article says, these days phones even show an indicator to alert you when the microphone is on.
I can’t imagine how you think it’s incredibly simple. These things are hell to explain to pretty much any normal person who needs to know why there’s no picture on the monitor or why their laptop/phone is not charging, or why the keyboard isn’t working in BIOS (no USB 3 support so you gotta switch to a USB 2 port). Add to that the combinatorial complexity of different cables and hubs supporting different things, and no tools for troubleshooting what feature is missing (and where in the chain) or what is suboptimal.
Worse, sometimes it’s my boss who thinks they can cheap out and get a USBC dock instead of a proper dock, forcing me to run at non-native lower resolutions or unable to use a second screen.