The problem is not that the NSA is acting like the NSA, but that Jim Stone is claiming Furbys are routinely used to monitor your home, it is not outlandish but they would have to phone home though regularly and recognise speech content rather than re-broadcast most of todays TV. They are a regularly hacked device by enthusiasts and such behaviour with an off the shelf product would have been known since 1999.

It can be done, they could monitor your voice for key phases, they were however unintelligent listening devices and cannot discern their owner from say Don Hewitt, speech recogniton was still flawed and a device with a phone sim where none should be – or one that reguarly asks leading questions if you are an Anti American commie Islamist would be highly suspicious.

It could be done, it would be obvious if it was done, it would also mean one of the worlds largest lawsuits against Hasbro and Tiger electronics because buying a Toy does not mean you have signed a waiver over your constitutional rights, and there was nothing in your contract about your purchase broadcasting your life to the worlds security agents.