Wenheng Zhao […] received at least $14,866 in bribe in exchange for secret military information […]

But a fine of only $5,500? It’s apparently profitable to be a BAD spy, too

My opinion: the fine should be AT LEAST 2x (if not 10x) what the bribes were. And not dismissible in bankruptcy.

Birds of a feather got to stick together.

My take is two fold: 1- Marketing over selling their product (common practice) 2- The “always listening” devices are mainly their Smart Remotes that have a microphone built in.

#2 Seems the most likely as is a device fully in their control and can pull as much ad marketing / information gathering details from it as they want.

Agreed. I used to be able to rely on adding “reddit” to my Google searches to get relevant and insightful information. That still works today (soon after the exodus), but the information there will slowly age out of relevance. By the time they figure that out it’ll be to late for them to pull out.