Voice Technology
Why in news :
- According to data by the Reserve Bank of India, cyber frauds have cost the country an estimated ₹100 crore a day over the last seven years.
- The frauds reported in 202122 were 23.69% higher than in the previous year (9,103 cases reported compared to 7,359 in 202021), although there was a decline in the amount involved.
Main reasons for the fraud :
The global adoption of smartphones has led to a dramatic increase in biometrics for security.
However, these methods are cumbersome, not entirely secure, and vulnerable to deep fakes.
- greater use of digital payments,
- telephone banking, and
- online banking services
- use of passwords, passwords are the weakest link in security (81% of hacking-related breaches involve weak passwords).
How to overcome the fraud issues :
- Adopt Voice Technology (VT), which encompasses voice biometrics or voice/speech recognition technology.
Mechanism behind the Voice Technology :
- It uses the unique characteristics of a person’s voice as identification.
- The technology creates a digital voiceprint and compares it to a caller’s voice.
Scope of the Technology :
- Experts expect the market to reach a market size of $3.9 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%.
Benefits of Voice Technology :
- Voice authentication can significantly improve security over knowledgebased authentication methods, which fraudsters have exploited to scam people.
- Affordable and cheap :
- Compared to other biometrics, voice use is the cheapest technology.
- It does not require a reader or special device.
- It is also noninvasive, portable and affords remote identification.
- It also allows privacy because it does not require users to reveal personal information.
- Voice has a much lower error rate, and requires no eye contact.
Case study :
- In February 2019, HSBC became the first bank to take the revolutionary leap in introducing voice recognition for mobile banking customers — telephone banking fraud cases fell by over 50%.
Applications of the voice technology :
- VT is an essential tool for forensics and law enforcement.
- By adopting VT, police in India can stand to gain tremendously, especially with the recent introduction of 5G.
- The police can leverage voice to improve investigation efficiency, identify criminals, track criminals, and better respond to and prevent crimes.
- Voice is finding use from criminal background checks to airport security.
- Voice could be an excellent tool for the Government to disburse money for various schemes and verify the proof of life of pensioners from their homes.
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS3 – Science and Technology
