A matter of trust: keeping private information private
“This call may be recorded or monitored for quality or security purposes.” Sound familiar? Anyone who’s called their bank or called a company to get support or make a purchase should recognize this or similar warnings.
Sometimes, you might wonder what happens to the personal information (e.g. credit card and social security numbers) you trust to the folks working in the Call Centers, taking dozens or hundreds of calls every day from you and other customers. It’s probably one of those “security purposes” that matters to all of us.
Now, thanks to the work of researchers at IBM’s India Research Laboratory, we’re a big step closer to peace of mind. They have developed advanced data masking technology that helps call centers protect customer information without disrupting customer service or business operations by scanning and “masking” critical data.
It’s already being put to use in IBM’s own call centers, where the sophisticated software does what no other technology has been able to do: it detects and masks private and sensitive information collected from audio recordings of conversations between call center agents and customers. Marketplace availability and pricing haven’t been announced.
Compare the new automated process with a typical call center, where audio recordings are stored, shared by auditors, personnel being trained, quality and other management. Those are a lot of ears to hear your private information.
"Though the technology can be used in any setting, it is especially vital for contact centers and the ITES industry where sensitive information is exchanged," said Dr. Mukesh Mohania, who heads the Information Management research team at IBM's India Research Laboratory.
"The ability to maintain customer trust requires organizations to be able to ensure the security of their customers' private information, such as credit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PIN), social security numbers and other information collected through agent-customer interactions," agreed Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Director, IBM India Research Laboratory. "This technology helps to ensure effective measures to safeguard company brands and manage customer trust."
Voice and screen masking utilizes a combination of speech analytics and metadata to locate portions of an audio or screen recordings that contain sensitive data such as a credit card or bank account numbers. The masking solution blocks that portion of the call or screen during playback so that it’s no longer available to unauthorized individuals.
The technology is a speech analytics tool that automatically detects and masks private and sensitive information collected from audio recordings of conversations between call center agents and customers.