Far more people have smart phones using one of 2 OSes, and unlike smart home devices, people generally take these with them wherever they go - to the store, to the bathroom, to sleep, to the doctors office, etc. Do you think cell phones are trojan horses too?
> How many apps ask for location data and background location data, when the use case for such permissions are questionable.
On Android anything that can be used to deduce location, including Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. is lumped in the location permission, which can be answered with "only while using the app" or "only once".
> We still don't have end-to-end encryption for basic communication protocols such as SMS.
Because SMS is a legacy protocol that needs to maintain backwards compatiblity, so bolting on encryption is extremely complex for literally no gain - chat messaging apps with better UX, and sometimes even end to end encryption, are a dime a dozen.
>* Look at how much FB's revenue decreased when it's consumer tracking efforts were given the smallest roadblock on iOS.
How much did it drop? By "smallest roadblock on iOS", I'm assuming you mean app tracking transparency, which was implemented in ios 14.5 (released April 26, 2021). According to this graph[1], facebook revenue for Q2 2021 was up from last quarter.
I certainly think phones have more spying potential than Alexa/smart devices. But my point is very few people bring up "but what about spying?" whenever smartphones are discussed, with the implication that these devices should be avoided because of that.
