The Echelon system of NSA is pretty mind-blowing I'll admit. But they don't monitor it in real-time, ie listen in on every cellphone and landline call made. The software does this. They listen to it personally if enough codewords are tagged to your conversation. Say if you call a friend and say: "Dude, this party is da bomb! You gotta come here! It will totally blow your mind, man!" This call contains at least two code-words they surely look at: Bomb and blow. In such a short message, it will likely rank just slightly above NO THREAT, or whatever code name they have assigned normal conversation. This will result in a second run through the computer. It's not until you add more things, like "White House", "Treasury", "Pentagon", "CIA" or other things like "timer", "dynamite", "attack" etc, that it will rise in the warning system and eventually lead to an actual person either reading the transcript or listen to the conversation.

Back to topic originally posted. I would not want advertisement delivered in such a way. On this computer, it would be a bit hard to achieve too though, as it doesn't have a built-in mic. There is also the possibility of disabling your mic. If Google is trying to do this, they will soon be picked up as adware/spyware/malware by all the programs looking for this, if they try to enable a disabled mic. It won't be too hard to get around this problem.

Still, the concept is frightening in both these cases. I have read the book 1984, and it's not pleasant reading. Well, in a way it is: It hasn't happened quite so dictatorial yet. We are not complete mindslaves of a regime. I can't understand the attraction of the TV program Big Brother. I watched a few of the episodes of the first season to run (in Norway), but that was purely because the Big Brother house was located within a kilometer of my workplace at the time. A workplace which I lived in. (Barracks, twelve-hour days, 14 days on, 14 days off)

Why would anyone want to give up their privacy and privileges of humanity in such a blatant way? For fame? For being known as the sluttiest girl on TV? For being the dumbest character on TV? For being the most obnoxious character on TV? (Although I think Simon Cowell in USA, and Tor Milde in Norway holds that title )
If you want to join a reality show, why not Survivor or the Apprentice or Hell's Kitchen or any of several dozens other? At least then you get a true experience for life. Sitting around talking and drinking and having sex on camera can be done from the comfort of your own home.

(/off topic)

I have quite a few deja vus already, and I wouldn't wanna have more of them, as outlined in this thread. The Google thing will never happen here in Norway. Our government-appointed organisation for taking care of our civil liberties, aka anti-surveillance organisation, Datatilsynet, wouldn't allow it. They won't allow having security cameras on buses to get a picture of idiots robbing the chauffeur, so why would they allow something that is such a blatant disregard to civil liberties? They won't even allow fingerprint readers for locations where it would be prudent to have such, as an explosive storage, so why would they allow Google to do this?

This thing will probably never come to fruition as anything but an add-on you can request.