I think Google started with good intentions but have grown to be this huge insanely powerful beast that has influence in governments around the world.
Elon Musk said something that blew my mind. He thinks that the human race will be controlled by AI in the not too distant future and that we are already part cyborg because we use our smartphones for everything and this will grow to the stage where we won't use our thumbs to type anymore but a chip will be placed into our heads which will make everything instant which will completely change humanity.
He also reckons AI will learn everything it's took us thousands of years to learn in minutes and then evolve at a rate beyond human comprehension and kill us all because we ruined the planet and look like blubbering cave men to it.
Google and a lot of apps definitely listen in on your conversations and they're not even trying to cover it up. The next time you install a new app, look at the permissions it asks for. It wants access to your mic, messages, contacts etc and usually it's an app that doesn't require any of that for it's functions e.g a game or a calculator. Harvesting your info is very lucrative.
There's not an actual person listening in and it's all algorithms and bollocks but I wouldn't trust google. They're no doubt storing all this voice data like they do with location tracking and Internet activity. Google know more about me than anyone and it's scary.
TBF all data is anonymised and not stored together, I did a bit on it on my Data Science Masters. You don’t need to make “profiles” of a user to train the model, each bit of data can be used independently. I share everything with Google, I’m not bothered, worst that happens is I get related ads.
More bothered by XKEYSCORE at GCHQ. That does link everything including government and financial records and friendship networks. And they don’t even give me free email.
When Google has the legal right to kill me and leave me in a gym bag I’ll put them on the same level.
When I'm in Spain I get a load of Spanish adverts come up on here for all sorts.....very strange but linked to searches and location...... technology, beyond me