[grrowl]

You say "they" as in Google, but it would be much more effective to persuade a single developer (and maybe his manager) who can implement such a feature in a open, transparent way (which would display the standard "recording" icon in the omnibar) or in a closed, subversive way (like, this).

Basically lean on "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" as much as possible to fly under the radar as long as possible.