This quote about half way down largely unravels this article's central point:
> microphones only send recordings to the servers when you use the wake word.
This is a fact we can verify with tools like Wireshark. Their other point about "open microphones" largely ignores smartphones which all have open microphones and a baseband operating system which can activate the microphone to spy (which the NSA did[0]).
Their point about existing hacks targeting the Echo is also largely unraveled by a quote further down:
> This particular exploit only worked on devices made before 2017 and required the hacker to have physical access to the Echo.
Essentially if you disassemble an Echo and reprogram it, it will do something else. Compelling stuff...