Well I can tell you why I'm okay with it. Google says (and i've somewhat validated) that data isn't sent to their servers until you say the "keyword". And they

Well I can tell you why I'm okay with it. Google says (and i've somewhat validated) that data isn't sent to their servers until you say the "keyword". And they do allow you to view and delete any previously sent speech from your account, and I do trust them about that as the backlash from not actually deleting it when they said they would could be pretty bad (and they could be in some pretty deep legal trouble as well). And if the worry is that they can update it to be "always recording and uploading", they (or another adversary) can already do that with the other phones, laptops, and other devices in the house (most likely more easily). It's a tradeoff, but it's one that I and my family are comfortable making. Just like how you can choose to not go outside and keep your privacy that way, I find the benefits and usefulness of these products are worth the loss in privacy for me. And that loss in privacy is controllable by me (they can be turned off, unplugged, or shut down whenever I want). That being said, things like the home-automation are as local as possible. Everything is run via local-network-only systems (zwave, wifi, bluetooth, zigbee), and then "external" systems are added on (like the google home). So i'm not trusting quite as much as people assume I am to some other company, and there are things I will not trust to 3rd parties (like i'm still not comfortable putting surveillance camera footage on anything I don't own myself).