[SamAdams76]

You will need the mic in order to tell it what to do (i.e. play music) or ask it a question (i.e. "What's the current weather in New York City?"). I don't see anything intrusive about it. This is first I heard of it "recording conversations". The mic only appears to be activated after you call it by name (Alexa).

It's a lot of fun at parties. Ask it what it thinks of Siri. It will tell you.

[Ouderkirk]

Ask it to tell you an Obama joke... it won’t

[Kirkwood]

It is a networked microphone and in theory someone can listen in to the audio from your home if they are able to tap into your network. Some also feel it is an invasion of privacy when the device is used for marketing products to you, but the same happens whenever you do internet searches or shopping by keyboard and mouse input.