It is coming to that, I'm telling you!
I have often wondered what would keep them from using our TV(Instant on) as a microphone, and decided that in fact there was nothing that prevented them from doing just that.
There is no safe place, get used to it.
The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
You're talking about a telescreen from '1984'.
I mean really, how can one have an "expectation of privacy" in one's home? I mean, you pay the government rent, so it's not really yours, and the place has windows, so you must not be that worried about privacy in the first place. Plus, think how much crime will be prevented for the children when all of us are watched 24 hours a day by video cameras in our homes. After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?