That's why I bought myself a smart TV without any mic. On laptops you should get an app like SpyShelter who can block apps from using the mic or webcam. And smartphones are a lost cause, luckily I barely use them and it's always turned off.
My son and I will on occasion, joke around and mention something completely obscure to test out to see if Google is listening and more often than not, a day or two later an ad shows up to show what we had mentioned. It happens far too often to be just a coincidence. It's good that we are not anarchists as we would likely have the NSA, or whatever the Canadian equivalent is, showing up at the door.
I've had many instances where something talked about becomes the topic of a YouTube video later that day or the next one.
