Since the invention of the very first smartphone, many things have changed. While the first apps were only provided by the developers themselves, there are nowadays app stores with millions of apps for nearly everything [Ref1]. Challenges when developing consumer applications While developing an app, the developer has to think…
In our previous posts [Post1] and [Post2], we have presented a rather streamlined version of the issue at hand and introduced quite a few simplifications along the way. Still, we have seen that privacy transformations of text are complex. A number of challenges presented themselves and we have discussed a…
Removing sensitive portions from a text, sometimes known as “sanitizing”, is often done by simply blackening the relevant words. Many people have seen such a redacted document at some point, it’s a technique commonly applied to classified government reports, for instance. A prominent example of such a document from recent…
“Tell me what you read and I tell you who you are.” – Pierre de La Gorce Voice assistants, such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant, are becoming increasingly popular. Some users are, however, worried about the fact that their vocal interactions with these devices often get stored in the…
Today, voice-enabled technologies rely on a machine learning paradigm called deep learning. Deep learning has led to major improvements in speech-to-text, spoken language understanding, and dialogue management. Before moving into the GDPR principles, first, let’s first briefly recall the concepts of machine learning and deep learning introduced and detailed in…
Compatibility and integration are becoming essential features for voice technologies. The expected increase in the development of mid-level devices, which are able to connect with smart speakers, although not being fully smart themselves, serves as the perfect example [Ref1]. Despite the popularity of voice technologies, 41% of voice users report concerns on trust, privacy and…
Speech representation In order to process speech on computers, the microphone output is collected and represented as a waveform, which is nothing but a sequence of floating point values called amplitudes. Here is a snapshot of the Praat software which is commonly used for speech analysis. The top image shows…
To perform the tasks requested by users in the digital economy, voice-based technologies record and process large amounts of data, including personal data, which is centrally stored in the cloud. Voice-enabled systems capture the user’s speech signal (voice), but also background sounds! Background sounds can provide private information regarding the user…
Healthcare has been one of the countless beneficiaries of the revolutionary advances that widespread computing has brought. Fast, efficient data organisation, storage and access that have greatly sped up the medical enterprise, yet many low hanging fruits remain hanging. Chief among those is the increased application of technologies that can…
Voice-based technologies are capable not only of executing and interpreting commands but also of identifying individuals by using their voice only [Ref 1]. Voice recognition (a.k.a. speaker recognition) should not be confused with speech recognition. The former aims to verify the identity of the person speaking while the latter aims…
Talking about dialogue systems such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant raises several questions. In the recent years, these virtual personal assistants have become the most popular representatives of their field. Although the quality of the communication and the supported languages are improving day by day, there are still several…
Ethics in retail Our partner Intermarché is one of the biggest food retailers in France, Belgium, Poland and Portugal. Intermarché is an ethics-centered retailer that aims to promote ethical values at all levels of the company from the production of goods to the customers’ basket through the whole supply chain…
On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force across the European Union. The new Regulation provides a broader definition of personal data with respect to its predecessor, the Data Protection Directive (DPD), and has rapidly become a standard for the processing of personal data not…
In July 2019, the Flemish news outlet VRT published an article revealing that internet giant Google employs thousands of people around the globe to listen to recordings of the customers – mostly unbeknownst to them. This came as quite a shock given that an almost identical report was previously published by the…
Voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant are still a relatively new technology for the consumer market. However, under the label of “Spoken Dialog Systems” (SDS), it’s a research area that has quite a long history. The classical architecture of an SDS typically looks something like this: The user…
