"Is my iPhone listening to me?" An iPhone seems to have heard a user's conversation about where person was going, and added it to the user's profile for some Apple service.

The iPhone, like any other mobile phone, tells Big Brother where you are. Your private destination will be known to the phone network (and Big Brother) when you get there. Meanwhile, just about all mobile phones can be made to listen to all the conversation around them, and send it to whoever did this. This is why I call them "Stalin's dream". Either of these is so vicious that I refuse to carry one.

However, that snooping doesn't send data to Apple. The possible listening feature reported here would enable Apple, also, to listen to conversations around the device.

The iThings are full of nonfree software; Apple controls the software, and the users don't. You can never rationally trust a nonfree program. Whether or not they have a functionality that listens for Apple, the device is full of malware.

A listening functionality would be the sort of thing you must expect, whether or not it is present now.