Andrew McStay speaks on the confidentiality of human-machine communication at Privacy Symposium, Venice

On 20 April 2026, Professor Andrew McStay spoke at the Privacy Symposium 2026 in Venice, on a panel titled The Confidentiality of Human-Machine Communication.

Billions of people now talk to large language models and virtual assistants every day, which makes human-machine communication an ordinary part of daily life. The interdisciplinary panel asked what that means for privacy:

• Should these conversations be confidential, and if so, why?

• What should count when judging their privacy implications?

• Does existing law, such as the ePrivacy Directive, already protect them?

Chaired by Andreas Häuselmann, the panel also included Anna Leschanowsky. It covered self-disclosure, simulated authenticity, anthropomorphism and empirical research on users’ privacy concerns.

Andy’s contribution focused on emulated empathy. When systems appear to understand and care, people disclose more, and they often treat the exchange as more private than it is. That gap between how intimate these conversations feel and how they are actually handled was the core of his argument for taking their confidentiality seriously.