I don't really have a strong opinion on whether they are or aren't, nor a desire to get a definitive answer. What I've realized though is that these "products"

I don't really have a strong opinion on whether they are or aren't, nor a desire to get a definitive answer. What I've realized though is that these "products" like alexa and google home exist solely for the benefit of Amazon, Google et al, as data collection devices (irrespective of whether they eavesdrop outside of activation). They are not useful to me (alexa favouring some stupid Amazon music over my connected spotify account was the death knell*) and I don't see a reason to give these companies another window into my life, even if they do it within their TOS, so I don't use them. Whether or not they are actually eavesdropping for some definition is not worth thinking to hard about *re the spotify thing, I don't know if this was an experiment or just a reset of settings somehow, but I had specifically connected spotify, and had Alexa revert to playing "previews" (clips of songs I asked for) on amazon music instead of using my paid spotify subscription. I also noticed that it would routinely play a nonstandard version of songs on spotify that did not coincide with the same search using the spotify app. Like if I searched for a common song, I would get an obscure concert version or a cover, when the usual version would be the first hit searching on the spotify app. Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity I guess, but it didn't win Amazon any points in my book