While I applaud any attempt to gather real and first-person observations...

> I don't see any evidence of any mic uploads.

... I am somewhat concerned at what seems to be a common assumption that Facebook (or any other remote server) is sending the same software to everybody. I find that unlikely when "AB testing" and similar practices are are commonly used. Facebook is very strongly involved with "targeted" services which suggests they are more likely than most to send different versions to different audiences. Obviously that isn't proof, but it's a good reason to extrapolating from a single example.

Version numbers and hashes of the installer or binaries from all parties would help a lot.

> I encourage those curious to try it and see for themselves

That's always good advice.