CRIMINAL CONVERSATION

While there's certainly no such thing as free speech for prisoners and other criminal types under surveillance by various federal agencies, the difficulty of monitoring their phone conversations — determining what they're saying and to whom they're saying it — is about to ease up.

Fast-Talk Communications has introduced an audio search engine that can review 20 hours of recorded phone conversations in seven seconds and retrieve a word or phrase with 98% accuracy. The platform uses phonemes — the smallest unit of speech — to pick out words based on sound, not meaning. Criminals who use telephones to conduct clandestine transactions will likely be among the first to feel the power of this new technology, said Patrick Taylor, Fast-Talk's senior vice president.

“We have had a nice run with the federal government,” said Taylor. “Some of the dark agencies have a number of phone conversations they would like to comb through.”

For example, Fast-Talk lets government listeners search through suspected terrorist conversations and find the word “bomb” (or “balm,” which illustrates one of the program's drawbacks). “We never understand what the words are, but you tell me what words you're looking for, and we can go find them,” Taylor said.

Despite its flaws, Fast-Talk is bound to make life a little tougher for prisoners using phones in lock-up to continue illicit activities. Here's hoping the Fast-Talk trend doesn't grow to encompass telecom industry conversations — “merger” and “murder” sound an awful lot alike, after all. Of course, in the current economy, the two words are often synonymous anyway.