You allow your smartphone to connect to the Internet, right?
I'm pretty sure your smartphone (that generally has 3 microphones and 2 cameras, and you carry it around) is a way, way bigger privacy concern.
Yet you wouldn't ask Slashdot, should I allow my smartphone to connect to the Internet. Right? See my point?
No, in point of fact I don't. I have a $70 dollar data disabled flip phone. It replaced my egonomical disaster "John's cellphone." Nor do I carry the phone when I leave the house, unless for a long road trip. And I take nothing with me when I travel overseas. For photos, I use a digital camera. It's getting more difficult to maintain a small monitoring footprint and I believe and fear it will soon be impossible. The entire ecosystem is insecure and this is not the internet we dreamed we'd get.
Never trust an operating system.