Question

What are the privacy aspects for the Voice Search Assistance feature? Is the data processed via any 3rd party service?

Answer

The Voice Search Assistance feature allows patrons to speak their commands, rather than type them. This is accomplished through the use of a browser API (called Web Speech API) and its capability is determined by the browser. 

When a command is spoken by the patron, the command is sent to the browser and not to an Ex Libris product. The browser itself might store all voice commands. Ex Libris does not store any of the voice search commands.

Some browsers (e.g. Chrome) do pass speech API data to 3rd parties. Please refer to the Google Chrome Privacy Whitepaper for details. 

The library can choose whether to enable the feature for their patrons in a Primo configuration. In addition it requires patron confirmation to use the browser's microphone to enable it.

• Article last edited: 30-Oct-2020