BANGALORE, INDIA: Researchers at IBM's India Research Laboratory have developed advanced data masking technology that helps call centres protect critical data without disrupting customer service or business operations.

As IBM continuously seeks new methods to ensure privacy and security, the company intends to utilize this capability in its own call centre operations to further protect information for its services clients around the world.

The new data masking technology, helps call centres and information technology enabled service (ITES) organizations by providing effective security and privacy of data which helps in managing customer trust and protecting the brand, which is critical for the call centre industry.

Designed to help dramatically improve call centres, this sophisticated IBM technology detects and masks private and sensitive information collected from audio recordings of conversations between call centre agents and customers.  Previously, there was no known technology which provided this functionality.

Guruduth Banavar, director, IBM India Research Laboratory, said, "Call centres and agents who answer customer questions and address their concerns, play a vital role in reinforcing their organization's brand experience while maintaining customer trust. The ability to maintain customer trust requires organisations to be able to ensure the security of their customer's private information, such as credit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PIN), social security numbers and other information collected through agent-customer interactions. Designed to transform data for better security and privacy, this technology, developed by IBM Research, helps to ensure effective measures to safeguard company brands and manage customer trust."

Typically, in a contact centre the audio recordings are stored and subsequently shared with various individuals for different purposes such as auditing, personal training and quality management. During the process of sharing, audio files become vulnerable to unauthorized individuals getting access to sensitive information, which opens opportunities for personal and confidential information theft and other misuse.