> Can you provide a reference for where Amazon &/or google say that, specifically? This very article. But since you said you don't believe them ("those compani

> Can you provide a reference for where Amazon &/or google say that, specifically? This very article. But since you said you don't believe them ("those companies lie constantly") why would referencing them help here? Either you believe them, and it is settled, or you don't and it is worthless. Hook up wireshark, you can quite clearly see when Google Mini or an Echo are sending an audio stream since it is a substantial packet-load relative to normal "keep-alive" comms. The only exceptions to that, from what I've seen, are automatic software updates (but traffic is moving down, rather than up). You could also look at the device teardowns, for example this article has a good overview of the underlying workings (inc. Wake Word detection): https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/2a32d792-d471-4136-8262-79962a2b4d72/cpu-memory-and-storage-for-alexa-built-in-devices https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/2a32d792-d471-...