IRI Adds Audio File Masking to DarkShield

Data Masking Tool Leverages AI to Detect and Redact Spoken PII

MELBOURNE, FL, UNITED STATES, October 29, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Innovative Routines International (IRI), Inc. today announced a major enhancement to its flagship DarkShield data masking platform with the introduction of audio file masking support. The new AI-powered capability allows enterprises to discover and protect personally identifiable information (PII) within audio recordings, advancing organizational compliance and risk management strategies for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) teams, CISOs, and data security architects.


Addressing Another Blind Spot in Data Governance

As organizations capture and store more recorded interactions — from customer service calls and interviews to AI training datasets — the need to secure sensitive spoken content has become urgent. Regulators, including France’s CNIL, have classified voice recordings and voiceprints as personal data under privacy law, making them subject to the same regulatory scrutiny as written or structured information.

Until now, many data protection programs have lacked a unified solution to detect and anonymize sensitive content in audio files, leaving them vulnerable to data privacy violations and noncompliance risks.


How DarkShield Secures PII in Audio Files

With the latest update, IRI DarkShield expands its reach to common audio formats such as WAV, MP3, and MPEG. The system leverages a proven AI speech-to-text model to generate transcriptions of spoken material. It then applies DarkShield’s robust data classification and masking rules to detect sensitive entities — such as names, account numbers, or health data — within the transcripts.

Once identified, the solution automatically masks the corresponding audio segments, either by replacing them with configurable tones, silence, or bleeps, or by deleting the affected portions altogether. This ensures that privacy is preserved in both the textual and auditory layers of the file.
Crucially, this capability integrates seamlessly with the existing DarkShield framework, allowing organizations to apply the same governance rules, workflows, and audit trails to audio data that they already use for structured and unstructured information.


Enabling Unified Compliance for GRC and Security Teams

By extending data masking to the audio domain, DarkShield empowers GRC teams, CISOs, and data security architects to maintain consistent protection policies across more data types. This enhancement supports regulatory compliance under frameworks such as GDPR, CPRA, and HIPAA, and demonstrates IRI’s proactive commitment to safeguarding all forms of personal data.

The new feature also reduces reliance on manual redaction processes, improving both operational efficiency and accuracy. Because audio masking occurs automatically within established data protection jobs, organizations can validate results, maintain complete auditability, and integrate the process directly into their privacy governance programs.


Industry Perspective

“Voice data has long been a blind spot in enterprise data protection,” said David Friedland, SVP at IRI. “With this enhancement to DarkShield, IRI gives organizations a practical, automated way to manage spoken PII using the same controls and governance policies they already trust for other data sources. It’s a significant step toward true, unified data privacy management.”


Availability

IRI DarkShield with audio masking support is available now in beta form and will be in the next general release, DarkShield Version 7, early next year. Existing users can contact their IRI representative or authorized partner for feature implementation guidance.

For more information, see https://www.iri.com/blog/data-protection/masking-pii-in-audio-files

Prospective users can request a demonstration or trial at www.iri.com.


About IRI

Innovative Routines International (IRI) is a leading developer of data management and protection software founded in 1978 and based in Florida’s Space Coast. IRI DarkShield solution is part of the IRI Data Protector suite, designed to help organizations discover, classify, mask, and govern sensitive information across structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data sources. With a focus on privacy, compliance, and operational integrity, IRI enables enterprises to protect data wherever it resides — now including voice repositories.

Alyssa Ardhya
IRI, The CoSort Company
+1 321-777-8889
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