Who hasn’t tried to imitate the well-known phrase that Darth Vader said to the young Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode V? Who doesn’t have in their memory the exact tone that this famous character had?

The voice is the main means of communication that people have. How else would we be able to recognize our friends and family with just a few seconds of telephone conversation, without the need to see them, and at the same time, how easily do we forget the voice of those who are no longer with us, while we easily remember their facial features?

In a society saturated with images, the voice has become the tool we use when we really want to generate a deep bond; when we want to build a relationship of greater trust. When what we say really matters, we try to see each other personally or have a call, instead of writing a Whatsapp, an SMS, or an email.

The voice also makes us individual and irreplaceable beings. It has traditionally been one of the key elements that allowed us to recognize and be certain that someone is who they say they are.

Our voice is irreplaceable, just as our fingerprint or our face can be, being the only personal and non-transferable identification element. It was not until the consolidation of voice biometrics as a reliable, accurate, and secure tool that this ability to identify us with the use of our voice alone has also reached the virtual world.

Thanks to the most innovative technological developments, which undoubtedly include advances in biometrics, society is beginning to restore confidence to a digital environment that has been suffering significant attacks on its credibility. It is biometrics, used to digitally verify the identity of individuals, that allows us to move from presumption to certainty when it comes to corroborating that the people with whom we digitally interact really are who they say they are. How else could there be trust without certainty? Shielding trust in digitalization will only be achieved if we better safeguard people’s identities.

In this way, and with the utmost respect for the laws that regulate the privacy and rights of all citizens, we can protect our identities more and better. The unstoppable elimination of all barriers between the physical and the virtual makes it essential to defend our authentic identity also in the digital atsmosphere.

Voice is trendy and, especially in the digital environment, it is here to stay. Not only because of the obvious progress in security (what better way to certify an identity than to corroborate that it is the same voice?), in fraud detection (how else could we detect that a voice is not real?) or in cost optimization (with what other technology could we eliminate all the time spent authenticating users on each call?), but also because of the tangible improvements in the experience we will have as users of telephone, energy or mobility companies, among many others.

Today, April 16, we celebrate World Voice Day. A day that invites us to take care of our great communication tool. Let’s safeguard our voice to protect our identity and enjoy greater security and freedom in our daily lives. The voice empowers ideas, but above all, people.