Eliminate PCI & PII Risk in Call Recordings with Audio Redaction

Organizations today generate a significant volume of recorded customer calls, with voice calls still accounting for about 75% of all customer service interactions in North America, according to industry research across sales, support, service, and verification operations. These recordings are essential for training, quality assurance, performance optimization, dispute resolution, and internal audits. However, they often contain sensitive personal, financial, and identity-related information that should not be stored in raw form. 

As regulatory requirements grow stricter and customer expectations around privacy increase, recorded calls have become one of the highest-risk data assets for organizations to maintain. Automated audio redaction is emerging as the most practical and reliable way to remove sensitive information from these recordings while preserving their operational value. 

The Increasing Compliance Challenge in Recorded Calls 

Whenever organizations record customer interactions, there is a high chance that sensitive information will be disclosed during the conversation. This can happen during routine processes such as account setup, troubleshooting, customer verification, onboarding, and payment handling. 

Sensitive data commonly captured in call recordings includes: 

• Credit and debit card numbers 
• CVV or security codes 
• Bank account information 
• Social Security numbers 
• Government identification details 
• Date of birth 
• Names 
• Email addresses 
• Phone numbers 
• Home or billing addresses 
• Passwords, PINs, and security questions 

Even if secure payment systems or external workflows are used, identity verification steps often require speaking about sensitive information aloud. Once captured in recorded calls, this data becomes subject to PCI DSS. 

Key Pain Points Organizations Face with Recorded Calls

High Risk of Storing Financial and Personal Data

Call recordings may inadvertently store cardholder data or personally identifiable information. Retaining such data in its original form violates PCI DSS and other regulations, exposing organizations to penalties, failed audits, legal consequences, and reputational damage.

Large Volumes of Calls Make Manual Review Impossible

Many organizations record hundreds or thousands of calls each week, with the average customer support or service call typically lasting between 3 to 8 minutes, depending on the industry and complexity of the interaction. Reviewing each recording manually to locate and remove sensitive data is time-consuming, expensive, and highly prone to human error.

Inconsistent Manual Processes

Human reviewers may miss details, apply redactions inconsistently, or fail to follow standard guidelines. In compliance-driven environments, inconsistency is a major risk.

Risk Increases When Recordings Are Archived Long Term

Recordings stored for months or years may be accessed by more employees, transferred across systems, or duplicated in multiple storage platforms. As recordings age, the risk increases if sensitive information remains unredacted.

Training, Quality Assurance, and Internal Use Cases Need Clean Data

Recordings are essential for coaching and evaluation, but internal teams should not be exposed to unnecessary personal or financial details. Unredacted recordings limit their safe use within the organization.

Legal and Regulatory Requests Highlight Stored Risks

During audits, investigations, or legal discoveries, unredacted recordings can significantly complicate the process and expose sensitive customer data unnecessarily. Redacted versions reduce liability during external review processes. 

Why Automated Audio Redaction Is Essential 

Automated redaction uses AI to analyze audio recordings, detect sensitive data, and apply masking consistently and at scale. It eliminates the operational burden of manual review and ensures that compliance requirements are met across all call recordings. 

Key reasons automated redaction is now essential: 

• Automatically detects sensitive speech patterns 
• Ensures consistent and complete redaction 
• Works across high call volumes with minimal human intervention 
• Reduces compliance risk and avoids regulatory violations 
• Saves time and operational cost 
• Generates audit-ready logs and redaction reports 

With automated redaction, organizations can continue recording calls without increasing their risk of exposure. 

What Automated Audio Redaction Typically Includes 

Sensitive Data Detection 

AI identifies and classifies sensitive content, including: 

• Payment information 
• Account numbers 
• Personal identity data 
• Contact details 
• Authentication questions 
• Government identifiers

Detection is applied across both audio and transcripts. 

Flexible Redaction Methods 

Organizations can choose: 

• Muting 
• Bleeping 
• Text masking in transcripts 

Automated Workflows 

Recordings can be automatically processed: 

• Immediately after they are captured 
• On a schedule 
• When uploaded to a specific folder 
• In bulk for historical archives 

Comprehensive Reporting 

Automated systems generate reports indicating: 

• What data was detected 
• Where it appeared 
• What was redacted 
• Relevant timestamps 

These reports support audits and compliance documentation. 

Common Use Cases Where Automated Redaction Adds Value 

Payment or Billing Calls 

Any conversation containing payment card information must be redacted before storage. 

Identity Verification 

Agents often confirm dates of birth, addresses, or identification numbers. Automated redaction removes these disclosures instantly. 

High-Volume Support Operations 

Organizations with many daily calls cannot scale manual review. Automation ensures every recording is processed without exception. 

Training and Internal Review 

Redacted recordings allow quality assurance, coaching, and training teams to review calls safely. 

Compliance Audits and Legal Requests 

During an audit or legal process, redacted recordings reduce the risk of exposing unnecessary customer data. 

VIDIZMO Redactor: A Dedicated Solution for Automated Audio Redaction

To address these challenges, organizations need a specialized and enterprise-ready redaction platform. VIDIZMO Redactor provides a comprehensive solution designed for compliance, scalability, and efficiency in audio, video, image, and document redaction.

Key Capabilities of VIDIZMO Redactor 

Multi-Format Redaction in a Single Platform 

VIDIZMO Redactor handles audio, video, images, and documents within one unified system. This allows organizations to manage all sensitive media consistently across different formats. 

AI-Powered Detection of Sensitive Data 

The platform uses advanced AI and speech recognition to automatically detect: 

• PCI-related speech 
• PII such as names, addresses, DOBs 
• Financial information 
• Other sensitive patterns

Multiple Redaction Methods 

VIDIZMO allows organizations to define how redactions appear: 

• Mute or silence sensitive audio 
• Bleep specific speech segments 
• Mask transcript text 
• Blur or block sensitive elements in video or images 

High-Volume and Bulk Processing 

For organizations that generate large batches of recorded calls or need to redact historical archives, VIDIZMO supports fast and scalable bulk processing without manual intervention. 

Flexible Deployment Options 

VIDIZMO Redactor supports: 

• SaaS deployments 
• Private or public cloud 
• Government cloud 
• Full on-premises deployments 
• Hybrid environments 

This ensures alignment with internal IT, data residency, and regulatory requirements. 

Compliance and Governance Features 

The platform provides: 

• Redaction audit logs 
• Metadata indexing 
• Access controls and permissions 

These capabilities help organizations demonstrate compliance with PCI DSS, CCPA, GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulations. 

Automatic and API-Driven Workflows 

VIDIZMO supports automation triggers and offers APIs for integration into existing systems. New recordings can be processed automatically using predefined policies and routed to secure storage without manual work.

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