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Providing Speech Privacy and Confidentiality

October 6, 2011 By

Safeguarding Private Information by All Reasonable Means Available

What does it mean to protect information in today’s marketplace? We think about firewalls to guard digital information and locked cabinets to store printed records, but often overlook the necessity of safe-guarding conversations. Speech privacy is the act of protecting private information passed through verbal communication. While this is easier when there are walls and closed doors, in open office plans and reception areas this is most effectively done through the use of sound masking technology. Here are some of the compelling situations needing speech privacy:

Business Clients

Whether on the phone or in person, many businesses communicate sensitive information about their clients on a daily basis. This requires utmost diligence by the business or organization to protect this personal and sensitive information. Financial, personal, and medical privacy is strictly regulated by law. These laws govern printed information, network security for digital data storage, and even the verbal communication of private information.

Trade Secrets

In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, businesses exert significant care to protect  company specific information that provides an advantage over its competitors, whether about a product, a process, or even a compilation of information. Almost every industry, from finance to medicine or manufacturing to social services, is compelled to use all reasonable means available to protect company information.

Medical Facilities

A 2005 study at Johns Hopkins University found that hospital noise increased by almost 30 percent and these levels have continued to climb since. While this obviously creates an uncomfortable experience for patients, even more importantly are the HIPAA compliance problems that accompany a noisy facility.

Eliminating Eavesdropping

Companies go to great lengths to secure the digital transmission and storage of information. But the further step of achieving voice privacy in the work place is essential. The Regus Group found in a recent study that that 59% of business professional had eavesdropped on other people’s conversations, and that 19% used the information they overheard.

The current trends of open office space and mass communication can help build better collaboration, but also allows for deliberate or accidental eavesdropping. It is imperative that managers find cost-effective means to safeguard sensitive conversations in the workplace. Today’s sound masking technology can provide better speech privacy at affordable prices.

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Sound Masking for Privacy

August 17, 2010 By

Privacy & Confidentiality

So often we complain about noise problems in relation to the accompanying distractions and loss of productivity.  While noise-related distraction is indeed a problem (since it costs businesses $600 billion a year), so are breaches of confidentiality.  There are many businesses and facilities that  require privacy and a certain degree of trust and mutual respect.

  • There are times when privacy is essential.

    Doctors’ offices

  • Hospitals
  • medical facilities
  • Boardrooms
  • Churches
  • Counseling
  • Government
  • Military
  • Call Centers

Whether a patient is sharing personal history details, a rape victim is reliving her trauma through much-needed counseling, a board of directors is planning its next move, or a caller is giving credit card information, each party needs to feel that their words are safeguarded from the wrong ears.

Sound Masking

In addition to noise coverage, sound masking provides a high level of privacy and confidentiality, as measured by the Privacy Index.  Rather than mute the conversations taking place through highly distracting means, low-level white noise is added through speakers mounted directly in the ceiling tiles.  The white noise renders the conversations unintelligible to the degree that every party is covered ad protected.

For better understanding, think of how much a flash light stands out in a dark room.  However, if you turn on even low lighting, the beam of the flash light is much less noticeable.  Similarly, by adding some low-level noise to the atmosphere, the important conversations taking place are much less likely to be overheard.  Adding the right amount of noise ensures privacy.

Rather than whisper, look over shoulders, or altogether decline having sensitive speech, why not try sound masking?

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Sound Masking for Counseling Centers

May 19, 2010 By

In matters of counseling, only the people IN the room should be privy to what is discussed.

Counseling is (should be) private & confidential

People seeking counseling usually have problems- and it’s normally not the kind of problem they want to talk about in a crowded restaurant or over coffee with friends.  That’s why they go to a professional, qualified counselor.  They expect anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality.  Just like they don’t want their personal files copied, stapled, and handed out to passers-by on the road, they also don’t want their deepest, darkest secrets and fears overheard…by anybody.  So what’s the point of locking up their files if the secretary- or worse another patient- in the front room can overhear the session?

Sound masking for confidentiality

A simple solution is sound masking.  Rather than holding sessions or keeping patients in a padded room, why not try adding the low-level background hum sound masking provides?  It keeps conversations private and confidential by rendering them unintelligible.  By nature of being low-level itself, the white noise used provides privacy coverage without being a distraction or annoyance itself.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

Bottom line is that there are enough psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors around for your patients to keep shopping until they feel satisfied.  And we all know that patient satisfaction revolves around the experience.  So, if that patient feels unprotected at all, he or she is going to look elsewhere.  Is that a loss you can afford?

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Sound Masking for Realtors

April 21, 2010 By

The problems of a real estate office

The McCord Real Estate Team

My mother and father are very successful realtors in Dallas, Texas.  My mom got her license first in 1997 and began working in a real estate office.  She quickly abandoned that office in favor of a home office because of office noise.  There were a number of issues at hand:

  • Distraction- too much office noise was distracting while she tried to work or make calls
  • Overheard Personal Information- she didn’t want other agents or passers-by to overhear her personal information as she made calls
  • Competing agents- there were times that the agent on the other side of a deal she was negotiating was present in the office.  The last thing she wanted was for that agent to hear her confirming a seller’s bottom price or a buyer’s top price
  • Lack of professionalism- similar to distraction, ambient office noise in the background does not sound personal and professional to a client on the other end of a call or in a meeting at the office

So, for the above reasons, my mom left the office and set up her own home office.  Fortunately, she has the discipline to treat her home office as an office and still be professional.  However, this is not the case for many, nor is working from home even a possibility for most.

Sound Masking for Realtors

A better solution for most would be the addition of a sound masking system within the office building itself.  Many systems are installed directly in the ceiling tiles themselves and the speakers emit white noise.  This low-level background noise covers distracting sounds and also provides privacy and confidentiality for all parties involved.

The result is that real estate agents can work productively in their offices, and their clients can get the best representation possible.  That’s an investment worth making.

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Sound Masking for Productivity & Privacy

March 10, 2010 By

Conversational Distractions

Office noise is continuing to be a problem on many fronts.  The first and foremost issue that has arisen is employee distraction with conversational distraction in the lead for what keeps your workers off-task and unfocused.  Thus, many offices have looked into acoustic treatments, such as sound masking, to cover intruding noise so that employees can be more productive.

An overheard conversation can be more than a distraction- it can be a deal-breaker...literally.

More than just a distraction

Interestingly, though, we often overlook the obvious when we state that conversations are the most frequently reported distractions.  For some businesses, office noise may just be an inconvenient distraction that doesn’t allow for maximum productivity.   For others, though, it means that workers overhear each other’s business and personal conversations, which may include private and confidential matters.  If other workers can overhear specific business deals and trade secrets, for example, they can also leak that information or use it unwisely.  This may be a deal-breaker for your company. A simple solution is to raise the background ambient sound just enough to cover conversations and phone calls so that the privacy index

Whether you’re looking for ways to increase productivity or you’re trying to safeguard your business and your own employees’ private information, sound masking is an effective solution that can achieve both.  There is a wide variety of options, and it’s worth your time to find the best solution for your business’s needs.

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Who is listening?

January 29, 2010 By

I once was in a doctor’s office for a normal prenatal check-up.  I was horrified, however, when I heard the nurse’s answer on a telephone call she received right outside my door.  Not only was I surprised to realize I could hear her, I was surprised that there was a phenomenon, previously unknown to me, I might suffer from after delivering a child.  I was a little overwhelmed with mental images and got a little dizzy.  I was mere weeks away from delivering.

What are other people hearing?

In that specific situation, I was hit with the stark reality that medical (and what I always assumed was private) information obtained on the phone or in the office is not at all private.  When I pour my postnatal hormonal feelings out in my doctor’s office, I want the comfort on knowing she was the only one who heard me.  I don’t want to look over my shoulder, wondering if anyone in the waiting room or adjacent office heard me.

HIPAA is in place to safeguard such information, but it doesn’t force doctors to implement any acoustic treatments like sound masking to further guard our medical records.  However, I love my doctor and would like to keep seeing her.  I just wish she would value me as much as I value her.

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