[Exclusive] LG Uplus Corp. Transfers Full ixi-O Call Transcripts to Overseas Microsoft and Google Servers

[Financial News] LG Uplus Corp. transfers full call transcripts from users of its artificial intelligence (AI) calling app ixi-O to overseas servers operated by Microsoft and Google LLC for the further development of ixi-O.
The data is subject to transfer only after both parties to the call have consented and the data has undergone automated de-identification. 
According to Financial News reporting on the 15th, LG Uplus Corp. recently revised ixi-O's privacy policy and added a provision allowing full call transcripts that have undergone automated de-identification to be transferred to Microsoft and Google LLC.
The revised privacy policy took effect on the 14th.
A full call transcript is the complete record of a phone conversation converted into text using speech-recognition technology. LG Uplus Corp. plans to use the transcripts for service-quality evaluations, generating ground-truth data for AI training through labeling, and data analysis, with the aim of retraining and enhancing the ixi-O AI model.
Through Microsoft Corporation, the full call transcripts will be transferred to 19 countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Australia, Japan, Singapore, India, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.
Through Google LLC, the data will be transferred to 31 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Australia.
The information will be retained for 18 months from the date of collection and then destroyed. However, consent is optional, and users can continue using the service even if they decline.
LG Uplus Corp. has continued to expand the scope of research data collected for the enhancement of ixi-O. In July, it revised its personal-information collection and use policy to allow original call audio to be used for AI training with users' optional consent. Previously, the company mainly used information converted from calls into text, but it added original audio to the research data. Detailed call content, one-line summaries, call-analysis keywords, and AI-generated suggestions were also included as training data. For calls in which voice phishing is detected or that users report, the company also collects information such as whether deepfake voice phishing or a criminal's voice was detected, the detection model used, and the time of detection, with the stated purpose of improving related technologies.
The background to LG Uplus Corp.'s decision to transfer the information overseas under this revision lies in the data-processing structure of global cloud providers. LG Uplus Corp. uses infrastructure from Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft to enhance ixi-O, and explained that personal information may be processed overseas because the location of data processing varies by service. LG Uplus Corp. said, "The data will be used only to enhance ixi-O, not to train other AI models operated by Google, Microsoft, or other companies," adding, "It will be transferred only when both the caller and the other party consent."

[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Reporter