They aren't "always on." Unless you very disingenuously consider The Clapper to be an "always on microphone system."

Honestly, the largest issue is the false activations having too large a buffer.

Advertising these days is insane. I google mattress firm address on my phone... two weeks later a VM exclusively used for gaming opens a wiki.gg page I left in Steam overly... and promptly shows a Mattress firm ad. On the only browser I have without adblock.