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Insurers are using lie detectors

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 08:35
by Kwacky
Just had this sent round at work, thought I would share it.

How broker Only Young Drivers is taking a novel approach to application fraud

A phone operator is fielding a call from someone looking to buy motor insurance. The operator – Paul – has picked up on the exact moment the customer has told a lie. A beep is heard in his headphones, but the call carries on normally.

This is the call centre of Only Young Drivers, a specialist broker that has rolled out lie detectors to root out application fraud.

The firm uses technology developed by Digilog to identify high risk statements – or ‘HRs’. The hints could lie in the phrasing, hesitation or nuance in sentences – subconscious cues that the person on the other end of the line won’t know they are giving.

“The algorithm analyses the frequency of the voice and a variation of distortions that happen naturally when a person is saying something untrue,” said Lior Koskas, managing director of Digilog.

The technology has been around for some time but has not been widely implemented across insurance. A team from the University of Birmingham has developed similar software that failed to attract any investors from the insurance sphere.

The Open Rights Group has slammed its use without customers consent and has urged the Information Commissioner’s Office to investigate. However, Koskas said there was little risk the software could confuse a statement someone was unsure of with an outright lie.

“It is not about picking up on when a person is unsure about what they’re saying,” he said. “It knows when there is a sure intention to deceive based on a cognitive reaction based on what you know to be the truth and what you are actually saying. This reaction shows up in the voice.”

Digilog’s tech establishes the normalities in a customer’s ‘base’ voice so it can pick up on ‘abnormalities’ later. Only Young Drivers has requested Post not publish examples of high-risk statements, out of concern potential customers could be forewarned.

Koskas admitted that the technology is not 100% accurate and is meant to be used as an indicator. Digilog has a success rate of about 85% – for every 10 false statements read, the technology will pick up on eight or nine of them.

However, Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said the technology was unproven. “This practice is unethical and almost certainly prone to high rates of errors,” he said.

“Customers need to be informed that calls are being processed in this way. The Information Commissioner’s Office needs to investigate this company for breaches of data protection law.”

Re: Insurers are using lie detectors

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 12:17
by Cav
Really..?

Re: Insurers are using lie detectors

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 12:52
by StMarks
Kwacky wrote:........ Koskas admitted that the technology is not 100% accurate ........
:D PR speak for...........

This is the future though, with little doubt.

Re: Insurers are using lie detectors

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 13:00
by Kwacky
It wouldn't be hard to challenge, would it?

Re: Insurers are using lie detectors

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 13:23
by D41
Depends....with a polygraph, a 'lie' is always a lie....a 'truth' can be either true or false, depending on a few factors.

The 85-90% accuracy rate sounds about right.