Is your phone listening to you? | LSE iQ Podcast

We all have an anecdote of a time when we’ve had an in-person conversation and then received an online advert about something we discussed. This leads many of us to believe our phones are eavesdropping on our conversations.

In this episode of LSE iQ, Charlotte Kelloway asks: Are our phones listening to us? She speaks to Professor Edgar Whitley of LSE’s Department of Management about the dangers of algorithms controlling the information we see.

Privacy expert Dr Carissa Véliz from the University of Oxford reveals how sensitive personal data can be bought and sold by data brokers.

Professor Nick Couldry from LSE’s Department of Media and Communications, discusses our increasing dependence on AI and how it’s training us to use it more and more.

Find out more:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2026/10/08/is-your-phone-listening-to-you-we-must-be-more-mindful-of-the-kinds-of-companies-we-engage-with/

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2026/10/08/is-your-phone-listening-to-you-or-do-social-media-firms-just-know-what-to-serve-you/

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2026/10/07/is-your-phone-listening-to-you-everything-is-organised-around-the-assumption-that-you-will-give-up-this-data/

Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and how to Fight Back by Nick Couldry and Ulises Ali Mejias
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455862/data-grab-by-couldry-ulises-a-mejias-and-nick/9780753560204

Predatory AI: How We Can Resist Corporate Capture of the Human Mind by Nick Couldry
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=predatory-ai-how-we-can-resist-corporate-captureof-the-human-mind--9781509554690

Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data by Carissa Véliz
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442343/privacy-is-power-by-carissa-veliz/9780552177719

Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI by Carissa Véliz
https://www.waterstones.com/book/prophecy/carissa-v-liz/9781800757240

Report on a study of how consumers currently consent to share their financial data with a third party by Edgar Whitley

https://www.fca.org.uk/panels/consumer-panel/publication/fscp_report_on_how_consumers_currently_consent_to_share_their_data.pdf