Interactive Voice Response, or IVR systems, are automated phone systems that work with software to enable you to conduct transactions over the phone without having to speak to a real person. Think automated payment lines, and those menus with different options you get through to when ringing large companies, these are all IVR systems and they are moving forward at an amazing rate.
After getting in trouble with the Information Commissioner’s Office last year over violations of the data protection act Google has announced that it has taken a great deal of steps to make sure that its privacy policies are a lot tighter. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham acknowledged the changes stating that Google has taken a number of proactive steps to ensure that their privacy procedures are now aligned with data protection laws. Graham noted however that the company needs to continue past the audit of the ICO to make sure that their new technologies and products also adhere to the same high standards.
For the last several years Google has been following a simple promise made by CEO Eric Schmidt to put their mobile division first. While Schmidt may no longer be at Google, his replacement Larry Page is continuing to follow that line of the thought as evident by Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility at a whopping £12.5bn. The full implications of the move will not be clear until it is seen how Google plans to use the new acquisition, although many analysts claim that the real reason for the purchase is to get the mobile patent portfolio that Motorola holds.
