The Use of Human Voice and Speech for Development of Language Technologies: the EU and Russian Data-protection Law Perspectives

Abstract

The global character of research and business related to the language-technology sector requires those producing applications of technology in this domain to comply with relevant regulation – pertaining to intellectual property, personality rights, and data protection – applicable in multiple jurisdictions. The paper reports on research aimed at evaluating and defining conditions for the compatibility of various legal frameworks for the use of voice and speech in development and dissemination of language-technology applications from the EU and the Russian data-protection regulation perspective. The research fills a gap that is of particular relevance, in that the compatibility of Russian data-protection law with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with regard to the field of language technology has not been explored extensively. The authors draw from prior research to examine the implications in greater depth, with two foci. The first part of the article addresses the legal nature of human voice and speech. In the second part of the paper, the conditions for the development of language technologies are analysed.