IBM keeps unwarranted ears from call centre conversations

Stephen Withers
Friday, 04 July 2008 08:17

Your IT - Home IT

According to IBM officials, the lab has come up with a system that uses a combination of speech analytics and metadata to locate portions of audio or screen recordings that contain sensitive data such as a credit card or bank account numbers.

When the recording is played back, the appropriate portions are blocked unless permitted by security settings.

"Though the technology can be used in any setting, it is especially vital for contact centers and the ITES [Information Technology Enabled Service] industry where sensitive information is exchanged," said Mukesh Mohania, head of information management research at IBM's India Research Laboratory.

Company officials did not indicate how long it will take to built the technology into a product, but IBM will be using it in its own call centre operations.

If it works properly, we can reasonably expect IBM to try and sell it to other companies as an additional consumer privacy protection benefit, but it will likely be years before it becomes commonplace unless required by legislation.

Perhaps one day we'll hear "Your call and your privacy are important to us!" even though some call centres would already insist that this is the case.