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SpinVox "Recognition" Is Often Expensive Human Transcription

Posted by timothy on from the comes-with-free-offsite-backups dept.

An anonymous reader writes "SpinVox offers to convert voice messages to text using a system called D2 or 'the Brain.' According to BBC News, said 'Brain' is often of the old-fashioned kind: SpinVox is sending private voice messages to South Africa, the Philippines, and maybe Egypt to be typed by people in a call centre, despite being registered as keeping all private data inside Europe and claiming that the text is somehow anonymised. Insiders say they transcribed 'love messages, secret messages' and everything else from beginning to end, and the company is being bled dry by the cost: SpinVox has been locked out of one of their data centers over a payment dispute. SpinVox refuses to comment further on details — but according to their web page, they're 'enabling the Speech 3.0, Voice 3.0, and Business 3.0 markets,' whatever that means."

3 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But it's not crazy by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Informative

    But it also knows what it doesn't know and is able to call on human experts for assistance.

    http://www.spinvox.com/how_it_works.html

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  2. Denial from Spinvox here by bheer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Spinvox has a denial here, claiming this is a case of disgruntled employees spreading falsehoods.

    Of course one'd expect them to deny it, but they've just upped the stakes. They would be in violation of UK privacy laws *and* lying through their teeth if this denial is false.

    --
    Go somewhere random
  3. Re:But it's not crazy by Weedhopper · · Score: 4, Informative

    And now you're saying that people who barely speak or understand English, let alone the subtlties of the language, being paid to transcribe English, is 'technically sound' and 'the best way to do it'? ...

    I think it's more likely that these people speak better, more grammatically correct English than the average Brit or American.

    I find it likely that the majority of these people who worked in these centers are young, recent college/university graduates who are doing this because they couldn't find another well paying job. This isn't a bunch of Angolans or Indonesians. We're talking about South Africans and Filipinos. The well educated South African and Filipino speaks, reads and writes excellent English.

    For that matter, the same is probably true of Egyptians. Though I can't say that with any certainty because I don't know too many Egyptians.