Infosec dramas are getting more tiresome? Are you really saying this on hacker news in an environment where we know governments, corporations, etc are actively trying to spy more and more on everyone?
It's strange how you think the latter options are the pretty obvious explanations. "Google wants to spy on you with hidden mic" seems to be the fairly obvious one to me.
What's strange is the amount of pro-government and pro-google comments on hacker news the past few years. I wonder what the two options for why that is?
Also, you are offering a false dichotomy. This isn't an either-or situation. There could be other reasons. Could be that "google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic AND they planned it for the future". Another option is "The mic was put there by mistake". Another is that "the supplier screwed up". Or another is that the "supplier intentionally put it there".
I'm saying this on a site where I assume people are able to think a little beyond the basics, yes.
Google spying on its customers would result in an amazing lawsuit. People tear apart and reverse-engineer these things for fun and it would have been discovered in due course. Google knows this. So, no, it's not an "obvious" option at all.
You're starting from a position of "of course google is evil". I'm starting from "how much sense does that make?". We've reached different conclusions because of this.
Pedantically listing a bunch of other options is missing the point, and they basically all fall under option 2.
As for your perceived "pro-government" and "pro-google" views on HN: people have different views on many topics. Maybe this is the only place you encounter views that differ from your own?
I agree with you that Google, an advertising company, would benefit greatly from secretly including a microphone (a-la Facebook giving you ads for stuff you've only spoken about out loud) however I disagree with your insinuation that the person you're replying to is a pro-government or pro-Google shill. I think Occam's razor in this scenario can lead you to two different conclusions.
It's strange how you think the latter options are the pretty obvious explanations. "Google wants to spy on you with hidden mic" seems to be the fairly obvious one to me.
What's strange is the amount of pro-government and pro-google comments on hacker news the past few years. I wonder what the two options for why that is?
Also, you are offering a false dichotomy. This isn't an either-or situation. There could be other reasons. Could be that "google wants to spy on you with a hidden mic AND they planned it for the future". Another option is "The mic was put there by mistake". Another is that "the supplier screwed up". Or another is that the "supplier intentionally put it there".