7.2 Legal issues: contracts, data protection, intellectual property

Data protection framework

complies with the EU (GDPR).

We act as a for internal systems and we carefully check all third-party processors that we use for storing data and analysis.

Voice recordings count as personal data—even if they are anonymized and don’t include any other information. This is because they may reveal personal details about the speaker, such as gender, age, or where they come from.

Under the GDPR, key terms apply:

• Personal data includes voice recordings and

• Anyone who processes the data acts as an independent data controller

• Wherever the users live, they have the right to:

  • know what personal information is stored about them

  • object to how their personal information is being processed and ask for correction or deletion of their data

  • ask for a copy of their personal data in a format that allows them to transfer it to another organization

Dataset sharing agreements

Persons or organizations who want to have access to the must:

• sign the Dataset Access Terms which state that they are independent data controllers

• agree that they will:

  • comply with the GDPR and other relevant laws. This means they must secure the data and respect the rights of contributors.

  • only process the data for the purpose of ASR models.

  • respond to any requests for access to data or deletion.

  • notify CLEAR Global of any breach or misuse of data.

Intellectual property

Contributors will still have moral rights over their voice recordings. This means their personal right to be credited for their work and to prevent harmful changes to their work. These rights are separate from copyright. Contributors cannot give them up or pass them on to someone else, even if they can do this for economic rights (e.g. licensing). They include:

• the right to be credited as the author of the work (right of attribution)

• the right to say no to harmful changes or misuse of the work that could damage the creator's reputation (right of integrity)

• the right to remove or take back a work

Data retention and deletion

• We only keep data for as long as we need it to review, improve, or publish it.

• If a contributor takes back their consent, we:

  • remove their contributions from our internal systems

  • mark their data and leave it out of future dataset releases

  • contact known dataset downloaders and tell them that the person has taken back (withdrawn) their consent

• We do not keep archived versions of public datasets that contain withdrawn data.