If you’re planning on buying a new Moto X phone, you might want to watch what you’re saying. A newly leaked video showing several features of Google/Motorola’s new flagship handset was posted online by Canadian carrier Rogers over the weekend, with one of the standout revelations being a new voice command system that’s “always on” by default.

At first glance it seems like a nifty feature. It works a lot like Apple’s Siri, only its integrated with Google Now. The good thing is that you no longer need to ‘do’ anything to activate it, simply say “okay Google Now”, and once the Moto X hears this command it’ll instantly perk up and respond to whatever command you throw at it, for example by performing a search or providing directions when you’re lost.

All well and good, but, but, but… Like Microsoft (whose Xbox One has a similar feature), Google isn’t exactly the most trustworthy of organizations these days, and this will inevitably lead to a degree of paranoia that Moto X’s Always On feature could become yet another tool in the NSA’s spy box.

Are we being paranoid? Perhaps. But then again, there’s good reason to be. Just this month, security engineer Ben Lincoln revealed in a blog post on Beneath the Waves that Motorola seems to be collecting data with alarming regularity – Lincoln observed that his Motorola Droid was transmitting his personal data back to the company via an unsecured HTTP channel every 9 minutes, including details like his email addresses, passwords, photos and even usernames.

“I can think of many ways that Motorola, unethical employees of Motorola, or unauthorized third parties could misuse this enormous treasure trove of information,” Lincoln wrote at the time.

At the time, Motorola refused to comment on the news, perhaps hopeful that the story would be drowned out by the excitement surrounding the Moto X – which in all fairness is exactly what happened. Except now we know that the Moto X will “always be on”.

Plenty of others have raised concerns about this ‘Always on’ capability. Last May, before anyone had heard about PRISM, Germany’s Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar told German magazine Spiegel that he was especially worried about the Xbox One and its potential for invading consumer’s privacy.

Here’s a translation of Schaar’s comments via Polygon:

“The Xbox [One] registered all sorts of personal information about me. Reaction rates, my learning or emotional states. You are then processed on a remote server and possibly even to third parties. Whether it be deleted ever, the person concerned cannot influence.”

One commenter on Polygon likened the Always On feature to an Orwellian “telescreen”, but noted that it was even worse as it was able to see in the dark. No doubt the Moto X will have similar ‘capabilities’ too, but in this case it could be even worse, as this device won’t just track you in your living room – it’s the one device that follows you everywhere and anywhere, in the car, at work, in the bathroom… Is there anywhere we don’t bring our mobile phones anymore?

Just as Microsoft did, Motorola will almost certainly release some kind of privacy policy explaining the new ‘feature’ and its safeguards, along with the (all too common these days) denial that it’s going to be used to spy on you.

And so once again, it’s all going to come down to a matter of trust. Can we trust Google? Since the PRISM revelations it’s been arguing till its blue in the face that we can, but Ed Snowden stands by his assertion that you can’t. If you do trust Google/Motorola, you’ll have absolutely nothing to fear, but if you’re the kind of person who has a taste for tin foil hats and living in caves, the Moto X might be one phone you want to stay well clear of.