Delip Rao, CEO and co-founder of start-up R7 Speech Sciences has brought the issue back into the spotlight that voice recognition systems struggle more with female voices.

Not New

The issue has been known about for some time and has been brought into sharper focus with the popularity of voice-activated digital assistants like Apple’s Siri, or Amazon’s Alexa, or Google Home.

Why?

According to Linguistics experts, the key problem is that females have higher pitched voices than males, and they tend to be quieter and sound more “breathy” when they talk.

With speech for example, Mean Fundamental Frequency (Mean FO) can be expressed as a number around which vocal tones are spread. The FO for men is around 120Hz, but for women it is much higher at 200Hz.

MFCCs

Also, another problem for voice recognition systems comes when they try to process words and sounds into MFCCs (Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients). The voices of women are known to give a less robust acoustic signal, and this signal can be easily masked by noise. These two challenges also make things more difficult for speech recognition systems.

Lack of Diverse Training

Since speech recognition systems also rely on an AI element, they require training to become more used to recognising certain vocal characteristics. Linguistics experts, therefore, also believe that a lack of diverse training examples of the speech of women may also be a contributing factor to the problems encountered by current voice recognition systems.

Gender Biases As A Result

Some commentators are, therefore, predicting possible worsening gender biases problems with voice recognition systems if these issues are not tackled.

Experts have pointed out the importance of training systems using equal proportions of men and women to avoid the problem of them being very good at recognising male data and very bad at recognizing female data.

Ethnic Mix

The same experts have also highlighted potential biases based on ethnicity if voice recognition systems aren’t trained using a wide ethnic as well as gender mix.

What Does This Mean For Your Businesses?

With digital assistants now in the workplace in computer systems (e.g. Alexa for Business),and with AI bots being used e.g. to handle customer service systems (with a voice element), it’s important that women and / or certain ethnic groups are not at a disadvantage when using the systems.

The problem is known about now, and companies should, therefore, be taking action to make sure that voice recognition systems work well for all demographics, and deliver equality as part of their value.

In a new trial involving a small number of users in the UK, Facebook has said that it will be testing the targeting of adverts based on user’s specific political and religious beliefs.

Why?

According to Facebook, the trial will help the social media platform to process and manage its customer data, so that it will be in a better position to ensure compliance with GDPR when it comes into force in May this year.

The severity of the fines associated with the enforcement of GDPR for large companies such as Facebook e.g. a fine for a breach of up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual turnover, whichever is greater, is likely to be a big motivator behind a trial that could improve how Facebook processes and stores data.

How Could Targeting Adverts This Way Be Of Help?

The trial appears to be using adverts for consenting participants to focus on testing and improving how the company handles the required greater consent from data subjects that GDPR will bring, and to ensure that sensitive data is better protected.

One other important result of the trial will be to enable the testing of facial recognition. Facebook is exploring how it can successfully give users an opt-in for facial recognition, which will form part of a measure to stop online impersonations by informing users whenever their faces have been used elsewhere on the site.

The Trial

It has been reported that the trial will work by first asking a number of UK users for permission to allow advertisers to target them on the basis of their political and religious beliefs, and their listed interests.

It is understood that Facebook will also ask users whether they are happy for their public information that identifies them (e.g. their faith and politics) to remain visible for everyone and, if permission is given, Facebook will provide an opt-in for allowing the information to be used to personalise content, and also act as one of the signals for relevant suggesting ads. This will include targeted advertising based upon thigns like politics, sexuality and faith.

Worries

Some people have expressed fear that opting-in to elements of the trial could enable extremists to use targeted advertising for recruitment propaganda. Facebook has denied this.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story is more proof that the seriousness of the implications of GDPR is hitting home, particularly with those companies that stand to lose in a big way if they are found not to be compliant. Although the subject of targeted advertising is an emotive one that can make us feel a bit uneasy as Internet users in terms of privacy, it is at least good news that this Facebook trial could lead to better protection of our personal data by a platform that arguably knows more about us than most.

With X-day now past this story should be another reminder that its time for companies everywhere to think about double-checking that their own systems and procedures will be GDPR compliant.

New measures by the EU will mean that technology companies will have as little as just one hour to take down illegal and terror content, or face penalties under new legislation.

Why Only One Hour?

The new measure, which has reportedly been met with dismay by the big tech companies such as Google and Facebook (who will arguably be most seriously affected), is focused mainly on terror-related content. The logic that because terrorist content is considered to be most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online, all companies will, therefore, be required to remove such content within only one hour from its referral, as a general rule.

Other illegal content that is being targeted by the new measures includes incitement to hatred and violence, child sexual abuse material, counterfeit products and copyright infringement content.

3 Months To Report Back

As well as the news that tech companies must remove the most serious content within one hour, the EC has also announced that any tech company that is responsible for people posting content online will have only three months from now to report back to the EU on what they were doing to meet the new targets it has set.

Operational Measures

The EC recommendations are that a set of operational measures will be used to ensure faster detection and removal of illegal content online, to reinforce the cooperation between companies, trusted flaggers and law enforcement authorities, and to increase transparency and safeguards for citizens. These operational measures will be:

• Clearer ‘notice and action’ procedures. Companies should set out easy and transparent rules for notifying illegal content. These should include fast-track procedures for ‘trusted flaggers’. Also, to avoid unintended removal of content which is not illegal, content providers should be informed about such decisions and have the opportunity to contest them.
• More efficient tools and proactive technologies. This means that companies should set out clear notification systems for users. These should include proactive tools to detect and remove illegal content, in particular for terrorism-related content and for content which does not need contextualisation to be deemed illegal, such as child sexual abuse material or counterfeited goods.
• Stronger safeguards to ensure rights. To ensure that decisions to remove content are accurate and well-founded, companies should put in place effective and appropriate safeguards. These should include human oversight and verification, in full respect of fundamental rights, freedom of expression and data protection rules.
• Special attention to small companies. The technology industry should, through voluntary arrangements, cooperate and share experiences, best practices and technological solutions, and this shared responsibility should particularly benefit smaller platforms with more limited resources and expertise.
• Closer cooperation with authorities. If there is evidence of a serious criminal offence or a suspicion that illegal content is posing a threat to life or safety, companies will be required to promptly inform law enforcement authorities, and EC Member States should establish the appropriate legal obligations.
• The recommendations are in addition to on-going work with the technology industry through voluntary initiatives to ensure that the internet is free of illegal content, and are intended to reinforce actions taken under different initiatives.

Response From The Tech Industry

Although Facebook has said that it shares the European Commission’s goal, the industry association EDiMA, (which includes Facebook, Google, and Twitter) has stressed that the one-hour turn-around time could harm the effectiveness of service providers’ take-down systems rather than help.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

As the Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip has pointed out, online platforms have become many people’s main gateway to information. For this reason, and if we accept that what is illegal offline is also illegal online, many people feel that these widely used technology platfoms now have a responsibility to provide a secure environment for their users. Many businesses are advertisers on these platforms, and are likely to share a desire to rid them of illegal content.

While some popular tech platforms have continued to resist what some see as too much censorship, interference, or over-regulation, the frequency and severity of terrorist attacks in Europe and the role and influence of platforms in spreading information, true or false (e.g. the US election) has given governments the fuel, impetus, and feeling of justification to try and apply more force to tech companies. The EC’s view is that the spread of illegal content online undermines the trust of citizens in the Internet and poses security threats, and the new operational measures could, along with any self-regulation, speed up the process of clearing illegal content.

The scale and frequency of illegal content posting has posed serious cost and resources challenges to tech platforms in recent years.

Dropbox has announced that it is now one step closer to delivering a unified home for work by forming a new partnership with Google Cloud that will integrate G-Suite in its cloud storage.

What Was The Problem?

Dropbox had been looking for ways to respond to the need for users to be able to help customers to make projects easier to manage, centralise their frequently used files and information, and reduce the time wasted in having to swap between files and bits of work scattered across storage buckets, apps, and devices. The company is also looking for new ways to compete in a crowded cloud storage market.

The new integration that the partnership will deliver to all Dropbox users will mean that they can use Dropbox to create, open, and edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files live. It will also mean that Business Administrators will be able to manage Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files like any other content that resides in Dropbox.

With a G Suite made accessible, no matter what tools users bring to work, Dropbox and Google customers will be able to better collaborate with their frequently used tools.

Additional Native G Suite Integrations

As well as being able to use Google Docs and files in Dropbox, users will also be able to benefit from additional native G Suite integrations e.g. with Gmail and Hangouts Chat. This could help teams to stay connected with project content and the conversations around it. The Gmail add-on will allow users to display the dates of creation, modification, and last-accessed for linked files, and the Hangouts integration will bring previews for linked files directly to chats.

When Is It Available?

The new Dropbox, Google Cloud and G-Suite integration will be made available to Dropbox customers in the second half of 2018.

One of Many Collaborations For Dropbox

This is one of many collaborations with leading brands for Dropbox in recent times. For example, Dropbox has formed partnerships with Adobe Creative Cloud and its Adobe XD, Microsoft, Apple, and Workplace by Facebook.

Answer To Competition

The latest partnership with Google is another way that Dropbox can fight back against some fierce competition from the likes of Microsoft. For example, Microsoft is reported to have been trying to lure users of cloud services from Box, Dropbox and Alphabet’s Google Drive by giving them its competitive product ‘OneDrive for Business’ for free until their current contract expires. Microsoft will be running the promotional switching offer for the next five months.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses that collaborate online and need to centralise stored documents, this latest partnership is likely to be good news. The promise of centralised content, secure collaboration, and more effective communication through platforms that are already in popular use for many businesses could bring cost and time savings, reduce wastage and frustration, and could improve competitiveness by simplifying things.

All the collaborations between Dropbox and other leading brands could be particularly beneficial to small businesses that will be able to more easily access files, documents and other types of data they need on a daily basis.

Also, this good news about Dropbox can only be helpful in making some headway in restoring trust and helping customers to forget about the bad news from last September when it was revealed that the usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords of an astonishing 68 million customers, stolen in a hack back in 2012 had re-surfaced in a leak.

MoviePass CEO, Mitch Lowe, has caused controversy by telling the Hollywood audience at the Entertainment Finance Forum that his MoviePass app can track and gather information about users before and after their trip to the movies.

What Is MoviePass?

MoviePass, based in New York, offers a service whereby, for a flat monthly fee ($9.95 per month), users can go and watch unlimited number of movies in cinemas, with some restrictions. It could be described as a kind of Netflix for moviegoers.

Location Tracking

According to the MoviePass CEO, the company’s app has location-tracking built-in. What some commentators have described as ‘creepy’ though is that the app can track your movements long before and after you’ve been to watch a movie.

Why?

What MoviePass prefers to call ‘location-based marketing’ is reportedly being used to improve the customer’s experience of the service and create more opportunities for subscribers to enjoy all the various elements of what the company thinks make up a good movie night. The company says that by tracking customers and gathering data along the way, it can “create a full-featured movie-going experience”.

How?

The big idea is that subscribers may want refreshments before or after the movie, and may have to travel some distance to the cinema. By knowing a subscriber’s location and route, MoviePass can then, via the phone app, give the subscriber details like discounts on transportation, finding places to park nearby, coupons for nearby restaurants, and other similar opportunities.

What Kind Of Data Is Gathered?

According to online reporting of CEO Lowe’s speech, as well as your location, the MoviePass app is also capable of gathering “an enormous amount of information,” which includes your address, which Mr Lowe says can be used for demographic information.

Criticism

What MoviePass may see as a kind of personalised, helpful marketing idea, critics appear to see as a potentially dangerous invasion of privacy that could have security consequences for MoviePass subscribers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Using new technology to improve marketing and customer experiences is all very well, but the point here is that customers need to be informed exactly what happens to their data, what is collected by the app, how it’s stored and for how long. This will enable them to make an informed choice, give consent, or decline. In a time when cyber-crime and data mismanagement and theft appear to be rife, customers value their privacy and data security more than ever. Companies need to be transparent about their intentions and methods, and need to be able to show customers that they can be trusted with their valuable personal data.

Also, in this case, it appeared to come as a shock about the capabilities of the app, and to some commentators, it may have appeared to be an inappropriate way and style to reveal what the app is capable of. This is likely to prompt complaints from some customers, and could harm the reputation of MoviePass.

If you are worried about the security implications of apps of this kind, for example, you could try to limit location data collection by going into your phone’s app settings. One other, obvious way to avoid any problems with the app would be to avoid MoviePass for now.

The introduction of GDPR in May this year is also likely to have implications for how MoviePass deals with the data of any EU citizen subscribers, as the company will need to comply with the new Regulation.