Insurance claimants to have sincerity tested by new technology
January 15, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Insurance
Insurance providers are to test the sincerity of claimants by using Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) software, according to new reports. 
The software measures the level of stress in a caller’s voice sending messages such as ’stress’, ‘excitement’, and ‘high tension’ to diagnose the truth of a claim.
Digilog, the company behind the technology, has 16 insurance clients, including esure, Halifax, Provident and Highway, but has been criticised by human rights group Liberty for being unreliable.
Speaking to the Observer, Gareth Crossman, Liberty’s policy director, said: “It assumes that stress is indicative of fraudulent behaviour [but it] should only be used to indicate where further questioning might be appropriate.”
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has also been sceptical about the new technology being able to cure insurance fraud.
According to the ABI it costs £1.6 billion a year and adds an extra five per cent to premiums.
ABI spokesman Malcolm Tarling said that no insurers are going to rely on it solely because it measures stress patterns – and “when you claim, you have a certain degree of stress anyway”.
