Maybe a bit off topic, but for an entertaining and chilling way to understand why Germans are so opposed to listening devices, watch _Das Leben der Anderen_ (The Lives of Others).
Not merely microphones though, but also privacy at a whole.
The other reason is the WWII history.
Das Leben der Anderen is a very good movie with a sublime cast (including Sebastian Koch), but hardly entertaining. A somewhat entertaining movie about the GDR (DDR) is Goodbye Lenin [1], starring Daniel Brühl (Bruehl). Both movies are primary dramatic though.
I can also recommend any movie starring Jürgen Vogel [2] (Juergen). The subjects movies he's in touches upon are often thought-provoking. Although also, usually drama. I can highly recommend German cinema, I hold the authenticity of German cinema in high regard.
I'm curious about your use of the word "entertaining"...
Do you mean to exclude dramas, tragedies, or things that deal with serious subject matter? Or do you mean to say that Das Leben der Anderen isn't a good movie?
Sort of. Entertainment is a classification taking into account purpose (Films are a form of entertaining one's self/time). Entertaining is to do with how one emotionally processes something.
The best distinction is the one represented in Collin's English Dictionary:
entertainment (ˌɛntəˈteɪnmənt) n.
1. the act or art of entertaining or state of being entertained
2. an act, production, etc, that entertains; diversion; amusement
versus
entertaining (ˌɛntəˈteɪnɪŋ) adj.
1. serving to entertain or give pleasure; diverting; amusing
That's why Germans should be opposed to listening devices.
The fact is, the vast majority is perfectly happy using stuff like android phones or amazon's echo.
Both an amazon echo and an android phone require a key phrase to activate. It’s obviously possible that they could be used by amazon/google to listen in, but neither is a covert device that you can use to listen in on me, something that these smart watches enable.
"Both an amazon echo and an android phone require a key phrase to activate."
But thanks to the devices closed nature, their manufacturers have the exclusive ability to remotely modify their workings so that the device could listen without the "owner" consent. This assuming it hasn't already been done and a single packet hidden into an update push can trigger undetectable monitoring. Technically it would be trivial to implement and trivial to turn off with another update so that it would remain undetectable in case of device hardware/firmware/software inspection.
"Could be used by a determined person with the necessary skills" and "is intended for and market to consumers as" is not the same thing even though there might not be a technological difference.
This still is not their primary purpose. And yes, illegal acts could turn them into an illegal covert listening device, but that would be illegal, wouldn’t it?
Yes, the MBPs got that fancy light. The TP can point the camera to the back tho (which could be worse). I covered all 3 with tape. Both 3 have that option. Only the TP has a killswitch for radios though. And it doesn't seem Apple is very fond of killswitches for radios, given their utter lack of expected functionality in iOS 11.
That's little comfort if an attacker can access the camera without the LED turning on. You can never be sure which is why integrated cameras and microphones get ripped out of devices used in sensitive areas.
Bullshit. They're already "activated" if they can hear the key phrase in the first place.
In only the absolute best case, the always-on microphone is backed by a local-only module that picks up the keyphrase, and sends only subsequent communications to the cloud.
We can argue about the definition of covert, but Amazon Echo does allow others to somewhat sneakily listen in on you:
>When you drop in on your device or a contact's device, the light ring on your Echo pulses green, you connect automatically and can hear anything within range of the device
Like I said, we can argue over "covert." But once you allow a contact to drop in on you, they can do it at any time, with no prior warning, and you won't know it until they're already listening to you.
Not merely microphones though, but also privacy at a whole.
The other reason is the WWII history.
Das Leben der Anderen is a very good movie with a sublime cast (including Sebastian Koch), but hardly entertaining. A somewhat entertaining movie about the GDR (DDR) is Goodbye Lenin [1], starring Daniel Brühl (Bruehl). Both movies are primary dramatic though.
I can also recommend any movie starring Jürgen Vogel [2] (Juergen). The subjects movies he's in touches upon are often thought-provoking. Although also, usually drama. I can highly recommend German cinema, I hold the authenticity of German cinema in high regard.
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/
[2] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0900915/