A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads
Capability, not actively doing so (although it’s suggestive as all heck, for sure).
I would say ‘worrying, absolutely’, but until we have more information about how/if this is happening, not much we can do beyond normal good practices.