For modern voice-enabled platforms, regulatory compliance isn't optional. Whether you're building contact center tools, sales enablement software, or AI voice agents, security is a cornerstone of trust, a growing customer expectation, and often a legal requirement.
As your platform scales and handles more sensitive or regulated data, the compliance posture of your speech-to-text (STT) API providers becomes a key part of your own risk management strategy. This makes it a crucial part of your selection criteria, and one of the most important factors to discuss with potential partners.
But while more certifications might look impressive, they aren’t all relevant. There are dozens of compliance frameworks—from GDPR and HIPAA, to SOC 2 and ISO 27001—and not all of them will apply to your business.
What matters most is understanding what these standards actually cover, and selecting API partners whose certifications match your specific industry, customer base, and geographic footprint.
In this article, we break down the most important and widely adopted compliance standards in the STT space—what they mean, where they apply, and when you really need them.
Before looking at the compliance standards themselves, let’s first establish some of the concepts you need to know within them.
End-to-end encryption ensures that data is concealed from the moment it’s created to the moment it’s delivered to the intended recipient. No one else, not even the service provider, can read it in between.
This is especially important in voice communications or transcripts, where sensitive information (like customer payment details or medical issues) might be shared.
For STT tools, end-to-end encryption means encrypting audio when it’s captured, keeping it encrypted throughout the transmission and processing stages, and only decrypting it when it reaches the authorized user or application.
RBAC is a way of managing who in your organization can access what data, based on their job role. Instead of giving everyone access to everything, RBAC ensures that employees only see the information they need to do their job.
For example, a support agent might be able to see customer transcripts, but only a system admin can delete them or access logs.
This minimizes risk by limiting potential exposure of sensitive data. RBAC is also a key part of many compliance frameworks, which require companies to show that they’ve limited unnecessary access.
A zero data retention policy means that the STT API provider does not store any audio or transcription data after processing is complete.
Audio input and transcript output are deleted immediately after the transcription task is finished. No copies are kept on servers, in logs, backups, or internal databases, and the data is not used for model training, analytics, or any form of reuse.
It's especially important for regulated industries like healthcare (HIPAA), legal (CJIS), or financial services, where storing sensitive data can increase compliance risk.
Not all providers offer a zero data detection policy—at least not by default.
Transport layer security is the standard technology for keeping data safe while it's moving across the internet. This could include audio being sent to a STT API, or when a user accesses a dashboard with call transcripts.
It encrypts the connection so that anyone trying to intercept the data in transit (such as on public Wi-Fi or during a cyberattack) will see only scrambled, unreadable information.
You’ve likely seen TLS in action already—it's the “S” in HTTPS in your browser’s address bar. Without TLS, any sensitive data sent over the internet is vulnerable to being intercepted or altered.
Audit logs are records of key actions taken within a system: who did what, when, and where. These logs are critical for compliance, security monitoring, and troubleshooting.
If there’s a suspected data breach, audit logs help you see whether an employee accessed something they shouldn’t have, or if someone tried to tamper with sensitive transcripts. They’re also used to demonstrate compliance during security audits, showing that your systems have proper oversight.
A good STT provider should offer robust logging capabilities that integrate with your existing monitoring tools.
A web application firewall (WAF) is like a security checkpoint in front of your web-based tools or APIs. It monitors and filters incoming traffic to block malicious requests. These could be attempted hacks, bots, or users trying to exploit vulnerabilities in your application.
If someone tries to inject malicious code into a form on your website or spam an API endpoint, a WAF can stop it before it reaches your system.
WAFs help reduce the risk of data leaks and service outages and are often a required layer of defense in regulated industries.
IDS (intrusion detection systems) and IPS (intrusion prevention systems) are like surveillance and alarm systems for your network. An IDS watches for suspicious activity—an unusual spike in traffic or someone trying to access restricted data—and alerts your team.
An IPS goes a step further and automatically blocks those activities before they cause harm. These tools help detect attacks early and reduce the time it takes to respond.
In the context of STT APIs, IDS/IPS can protect the systems that manage, transmit, or store sensitive voice and text data.
Even if a provider offers strong security and compliance, your company (as the one embedding the STT API into a larger platform) still shares responsibility for protecting the data.
This is commonly known as the shared responsibility model, which states that:
For example, even if the STT vendor uses strong encryption and access controls, if your app stores call transcripts in plain text or gives access to too many people internally, you’re still vulnerable — and may not be compliant with regulations.
You’ll also use your own cloud tools to help with this. These may be solutions like:
When evaluating STT APIs, don’t just ask "is the vendor compliant?" Also ask, "what part of the security do we need to manage, and are we ready to do that?"
STT services must satisfy a range of security and privacy standards. Security certifications vary depending on your industry, geography, and the level of risk you’re working to prevent.
Here are the most likely compliance standards you’ll need your STT API to meet.
ISO/IEC 27001 (and related ISO 27017/27018) are information-security management standards that many cloud and AI providers adopt. They require formalized risk management, access controls, encryption, and incident management.
These standards are applied globally and across all sectors and industries.
SOC 2 Type I and SOC 2 Type II are both audits that assess how well a service provider protects customer data based on five “Trust Service Criteria” (security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy). The key difference between the two types is what they measure:
For most enterprise customers, Type II is the stronger, more trusted signal of operational security maturity. This is often a requirement for enterprise customers, to show a provider’s operational security and trustworthiness.
These two data protection standards apply specifically to providers handling EU or California consumer data.
In the EU, the GDPR mandates strict data protection (data minimization, user consent, breach notification, data processing agreements, cross-border transfer rules, and more), which applies whenever speech data contains identifiable personal information. Any user should be able to request access to or deletion of personal information you hold about them.
In the US, CCPA (California) grants rights (access, deletion) over personal data, and imposes notification requirements. It’s very similar to GDPR for Californian companies.
STT providers must avoid using data without permission, and allow deletion of recordings/transcripts.
While technically only applicable to California residents, many other states and countries choose to apply this standard to do business easily.
Certain industries have their own compliance standards and regulations to meet in addition to those above. Here are a few of the most important:
Each data security or privacy standard (like GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2) comes with specific expectations for how STT providers must handle customer data. These standards don’t just mean a vendor is secure, they mean the company has taken measurable steps to protect user data, and can demonstrate how.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Even if an STT vendor claims strong security, you still need to verify it. That’s especially important for enterprise-grade platforms, or those serving highly regulated or sensitive industries.
While there are many important, nuanced actions to take, they ultimately boil down to the following:
Security isn’t just about the provider’s technology — it’s also about how you use it. The most successful teams treat STT security as a partnership between vendor and customer, and build clear internal practices to support it.
Read our complete guide to evaluating STT API vendor compliance standards.
Let’s finish with a look at how Gladia puts compliance standards and principles into action. Leading organizations in sectors like healthcare, finance, customer service, and legal tech rely on Gladia to process sensitive voice data—securely, reliably, and without compromise.
That flexibility is so important. Unlike many large, out-of-the-box API providers, Gladia is designed to adjust to your exact requirements.
Not every compliance standard is relevant to every product, but understanding which ones matter to your business and your customers is essential. As you evaluate STT API providers, focus on the certifications that align with your industry, geography, and data sensitivity, rather than aiming for a long checklist of acronyms.
A strong compliance foundation not only protects your users, it positions your platform for growth, trust, and long-term success.
To learn more about building secure, compliant voice-enabled products, explore how Gladia’s speech-to-text API supports modern platforms with enterprise-grade security and compliance built in.
Speech-To-Text
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