Yesterday, news broke that Google has been stealth downloading audio listeners onto every computer that runs Chrome, and transmits audio data back to Google. Effectively, this means that Google had taken itself the right to listen to every conversation in every room that runs Chrome somewhere, without any kind of consent from the people eavesdropped on. In official statements, Google shrugged off the practice with what amounts to “we can do that”.
Via Instapundit [1], “Google Chrome Listening In To Your Room Shows The Importance Of Privacy Defense In Depth [2]”
It's not that Google is spying on you, it's that Android is sitting there, listening for you to say, “Okay, Google!” and then sending the audio data to Google (as the comments at Hacker News point out [3]). The real concern is law enforcement [4] abusing this feature.
[1] http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/209039/
[2] https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/06/google-chrome-
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9738140