Or how about not assuming either way and waiting for proof before believing narratives. Anything else occupies the same space as conspiracy theories.
The math on anyone always listening to everyone’s phones doesn’t add up and will not any time in the near future.
We literally have wireshark and similar utilities available to all of us to inspect every packet of data coming in to and leaving our phones. You can install pcapdroid right now to see exactly what facebook is doing and where that data is going. This is not complicated stuff.
Now imagine the payday and notoriety that’ll go to the security research firm that is doing this kind of work on a regular basis and is able to definitively prove it’s happening. Why do you think that hasn’t happened yet?