Lok Sabha Question No. 1234 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-09
Subject: Voice Recognition Feature
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. T. Sumathy (a) Thamizhachi Thangapandian

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND  INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1234

TO BE ANSWERED ON:  09.02.2022

## VOICE RECOGNITION FEATURE

## 1234. DR. T. SUMATHY (a) THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to State:

- (a) the details of the growth in the voice-search feature in the country;
- (b) the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  address  the  privacy  violations  as  a  result  of  the increased use of voice assistants online;
- (c) the details of the average data retention period of online voice assistants;
- (d) whether the voice recognition feature has been misused for political campaigning; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a):    In the digital space, constant innovation is the normal and it is expected that current search engine models and user interfaces to applications on the Internet will increasingly incorporate voice led UXs. This is becoming increasingly obvious with mobile devices and other consumer devices incorporating voice  assistants/  voice  UX/  voice  navigation.  As  per  the  report  titled  'Voice  based conversations: Hype or Reality' that was published in 2019 by NASSCOM, an Indian IT Industry Association, the key insights are as follows:

-  There  is  a  shift  from  text-based  conversational  solutions  towards  voice-based  solutions  as they are more engaging.
-  Voice based conversations are gaining popularity  due to  growing voice  searches especially over smartphones, the largest usage channel (81%) for voice-based solutions
-  There is larger adoption across direct-to-consumer applications and enterprise use cases are also emerging fast.
-  There  are  notable  investments  in  Indian  conversational  AI  start-ups,  allowing  them  to strengthen their tech capabilities, add more languages, and expand global footprints.
-  Voice-based  solutions  are at a very nascent stage and  require  collaborations  among stakeholders to come up with practical and scalable use cases.
-  Voice  could  play  a  pivotal  role  in  enabling  e-governance  and  bringing  next  300  million Indians to digital platform.

The Government of India is cognizant of voice related technologies and are integrating these with government platforms for delivery of voice-enabled citizen centric services.

(b):  The  Government  is  taking  several  measures  to  address  the  privacy  issues  including  those resulting from online voice assistants online. Some of these measures are as follows:

-  Electronic  Consent  Framework  and  its  technology  specification  has  been  worked  out  and published by Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India.
-  National Telecom  M2M  Roadmap  published  by  Department  of  Telecommunications, Government  of  India  has  also  factored-in  privacy  issues  and  mitigation  mechanism.  For machine to machine (M2M) services, in general data security and privacy issues have been dealt at several levels namely (1) M2M data within telecom operator's domain, (2) M2M data within M2M service provider's domain, (3) security at sensor / device level and (4) security at network level.
-  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has published recommendations on privacy, security, and ownership of the data in the Telecom Sector.
-  The Personal Data Protection Bill and the non-personal data protection framework have been prepared. The Bill is under the consideration of the Parliament.

(c):  As  per  the  online  available  information,  the  average  data  retention  period  of  online  voice assistants may vary from zero day to the un-definite period till user asks for deletion. Most of the globally known virtual assistant service providers provide opt-in and opt-out services to users so that options remains in the hand of user to share voice recordings or remove it.

(a) and  (e):    Just  like  any  other  technology,  the  use  for  social  good  as  well  as  misuse  of  voiceassistant  technology  can  happen.  There  has  been  reports  of  fake  news  and  misuse  of  voice-over through social media. It is also observed that Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) can be used to create fake videos and audios. To tackle these, the law enforcement agencies take required action as soon as the matter is reported. Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) also keeps track and issues preventive guidelines from time to time. Press Information Bureau of India (PIB) also checks fake news and runs a twitter handle @PIBFactCheck. It also has a portal called https://factcheck.pib.gov.in/,  wherein,  any  citizen  can  report  and  check  the  authenticity  of  news. Government of India organises several capacity buildings programmes in cybersecurity and cyber hygiene including Information Security Education and Awareness for mass sensitization on cyber issues.

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