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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/06/25/interpol-voice-identification-database/">https://theintercept.com/2018/06/25/interpol-voice-identification-database/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Interpol Rolls Out International Voice
Identification Database Using Samples From 192 Law Enforcement
Agencies</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ava Kofman - June 25, 2018<br>
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<p><u>Last week, Interpol</u> held a final project review
of its speaker identification system, a four-year, 10
million euro project that has recently come to
completion. The Speaker Identification Integrated
Project, what they call SiiP, marks a major development
in the international expansion of voice biometrics for
law enforcement uses — and raises red flags when it
comes to privacy.</p>
<p>Speaker identification works by taking samples of a
known voice, capturing its unique and behavioral
features, and then turning these features into an
algorithmic template that’s known as a voice print or
voice model. With enough voice prints and samples
collected in its global audio database, Interpol’s
speaker identification system will be able to upload an
unknown voice and, regardless of the language it is
speaking, match it to a list of likely candidates.
SiiP’s database allow uploads and downloads of samples
from 192 law enforcement agencies across the world.</p>
<p>SiiP will join Interpol’s existing fingerprint and face
databases, and its key advantage will be to facilitate a
quick identification process — say, of a kidnapper
making a phone call — even in the absence of other
identifiers. The platform also boasts the ability to
filter voice samples by gender, age, language, and
accent. When the audio recordings are taken from similar
acoustical environments, accuracy rates can be extremely
high.</p>
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<p>Speech recognition technologies can identify and tag
individuals every time they open their mouths,
effectively ending <a
href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/10/06/voice-recognition-every-single-day-every-word-you-say/#30bc3f48786d">anonymity</a>.
As Interpol’s <a href="https://vimeo.com/219362794">promotional
video explains</a>, departments using SiiP can upload
intercepted phone calls and also search against voices
on social media. SiiP’s database will include samples
from YouTube, Facebook, publicly recorded conversations,
voice-over-internet-protocol recordings, and other
sources where individuals might not realize that their
voices are being turned into biometric voice prints.
“People choose to upload material online for various
reasons, but I doubt it’s to let police and arms
companies then enroll them into secret databases made
available to police around the world,” explained Edin
Omanovic, a surveillance expert at Privacy
International.</p>
<p>Cynthia Wong, a researcher at Human Rights Watch,
warned that a broad mandate could lead to an
ever-expanding collection. “There are many instances
where we might consent to our voice being recorded for
one purpose, but would object to using it for others,
including using our voice to build and train a massive
voice biometric database and recognition system,” she
said. “Or perhaps we didn’t consent to our voice being
recorded at all — perhaps our voice was secretly
recorded or inadvertently caught in the background of a
recording, but has now been placed in Interpol’s
database.</p>
<blockquote data-shortcode-type="pullquote"
data-pull="none">SiiP’s database will include samples
from YouTube, Facebook, publicly recorded conversations,
and other sources where individuals might not realize
that their voices are being turned into biometric voice
prints.</blockquote>
<p>Interpol’s system appears to represent the largest
international voice-harvesting effort to date. But as a
recent Interpol survey reports, many law enforcement
agencies have already been quietly using voice
recognition systems. More than half of the 91
departments in 69 countries surveyed already run
automated speaker identification programs. In 2010,
Mexico <a
href="https://speechpro-usa.com/media/news/2010-06-03">announced</a>
that it had created the world’s first nationwide
automated speech recognition system, using Russia’s
Speech Technology Center. As The Intercept <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/voice-recognition-technology-nsa/">reported</a>
in January, the National Security Agency has been using
speaker recognition to monitor terrorists, politicians,
drug lords, spies, and agency employees since at least
2004. The Department of Homeland Security’s new HART
database — which already stores a fraction of the world
population’s biometrics — will support voice data, in
addition to DNA, scars, and tattoos. Human Rights Watch
released a bombshell <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/22/china-voice-biometric-collection-threatens-privacy">report</a>
last year exposing China’s state-of-the-art system,
which appears to be integrated with mobile phone
networks and recognizes the voices of known suspects in
real time. Wong says that China’s integrated
surveillance system is likely to set a precedent for
other countries to follow suit.</p>
<p>It is unclear what kinds of legal safeguards exist to
protect against the creation of international biometric
collections, which may retain data indefinitely.
Oversight bodies for intelligence sharing are <a
href="https://privacyinternational.org/feature/1742/new-privacy-international-report-reveals-dangerous-lack-oversight-secret-global">scarce</a>.
“How can Interpol ensure that the voice samples other
agencies submit are lawfully intercepted?” Wong asked.
“Based on our work, many countries around the world fall
woefully short in regulating surveillance to begin
with.”</p>
<p>Wong, Omanovic, and others are also concerned about the
plans to create a “blacklist” of criminal and suspect
voices. It is not known who will audit the list, what
rules will govern when and how countries add to it, and
what happens if someone is placed on the blacklist in <a
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/voice-analysis-should-be-used-with-caution-in-court/">error</a>,
Omanovic said. Wong wonders what kinds of safeguards
will be used in countries where the government regularly
criminalizes dissent or jails journalists.</p>
<p>An Interpol report researching the ethics of biometrics
acknowledges the great chilling effect that such
collection might have. “Processing of audio data that is
never actually viewed does not count as intrusive in
itself, though it can lead to future intrusion,” it
states. “Particularly in an investigatory context where
the aim is identifying suspects for future scrutiny.
Even when no human viewing does take place, the
application of these techniques has consequences
resembling genuine intrusion: They can easily cause
people to fear that their information will be exposed,
creating a harmful incentive to avoid associational life
or unconventional behavior.”</p>
<p>Verint, a multinational biometrics company, has been
leading project development, and did not respond to a
request for comment. As Privacy International has
documented, the company has been known to <a
href="https://privacyinternational.org/press-release/1186/privacy-international-uncovers-widespread-surveillance-throughout-central-asia">install</a>
and “<a
href="https://privacyinternational.org/blog/1362/how-colombia-built-shadow-state-new-privacy-international-investigation-reveals">sell</a>
intrusive and mass surveillance systems worldwide
including to authoritarian governments.” This, according
to Omanovic, “tells you everything you need to know
about the level of ethical scrutiny being applied. The
EU is being securitized without any public debate, and
the only people who will ultimately benefit are those
working in the arms industry.”</p>
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