Comment by taneliv

From a security point of view music listening is quite marginal, I think. The vulnerable headsets make conversations trivial to eavesdrop.

Average communication input is in a noisy environment (colleagues, family, wind, equipment, car), and is compressed both in the dynamic range and bitrate sense before sending out. The transport medium then provides latency and packet loss. The fidelity of the audio equipment on the receiving side plays very little role. I imagine even audiophiles quite readily use even below mid-range wireless headsets for conversations, just because they are more convenient.

In other words, I don't take calls on my wired AKG headphones, even though my phone has a 3.5mm jack. I'm particularly fond of my €30 in-ear BT headset that provides good enough input and output even when I'm biking. I can't be bothered to check if the model is on the vulnerable devices list, the phone company / Meta / Alphabet / some governments and so on can surveil my communications anyway. Adding a random passer-by to the mix does not meaningfully increase the attack surface. Plus they might get to listen to awesome music, if I'm not on a call.