Policy Engine and Summary - APIs
What is the Policy Engine
The U‑Capture Policy Engine is a service that takes a collection of settings, evaluates them against various data sources, and makes a decision whether to perform one or more actions or not. U‑Capture allows you to create ongoing policies that run in the background to perform automated actions against recordings, depending on the policy type and how the policy has been configured. Multiple policies can be created, each with a priority value. The U‑Capture Policy Management API can be used to create and manage the following U‑Capture Policies:
Each policy is configured with one or more metadata filters. This creates a list of recordings that the policy is applied to, providing a powerful, flexible filtering system.
You can define as many policies as you need. In general, Uniphore recommends that you select and define your policies carefully, apply them consistently, and try to avoid conflicts. Make use of the Priority setting to define the order that policies are applied – for example, you may want to purge data before applying an archive policy to perhaps avoid unnecessary transfers.
U‑Capture currently provides the policy types summarized below, for more detail on adding each policy see the relevant add article in Create Policies.
Recording Control Policies
Use Recording Control policies to control which call recordings are discarded and retained. Recording Control policies do not impact live calls so they can continue to be monitored, blocklisting a call will not disable the call for recording and instead simply discard the call after the call has ended.
Blocklist: Blocklist policies can be used to provide fine control of what recordings are discarded, all calls outside the scope of the Blocklist will be retained. See Add a Blocklist Policy for information on creating a Blocklist policy using APIs.
Allowlist: Allowlist policies are the reverse of a Blocklist, an Allowlist can be used to specify calls to be retained that would otherwise be discarded (all calls outside the scope of the Allowlist will be discarded). See Add an Allowlist Policy for information on creating an Allowlist policy using APIs.
Storage Policies
Use Storage Policies to manage (delete, move, archive) stored data across your storage locations.
Purge – Retention Policies
The Purge policy type can be used to delete recordings (media, metadata, and transcriptions) from U‑Capture accessible storage (Media Store, Metadata Store, and External Storage Locations). This policy type is usually used to provide a retention policy capability, removing data from the system after a specified time.
See Add a Purge Policy for information on creating a Purge policy using APIs.
Move Media, Archive Metadata – Archive/Storage Policies
Archive/Storage policies can be created to move media/archive metadata to External Storage Locations (for example “hot, warm, cool, or cold storage” facilities). Media and metadata are separated to provide further flexibility – for example, you may want to retain metadata and transcriptions (generally smaller files sizes) in the U‑Capture Metadata Store for faster search, but move the media (generally larger file sizes) to external cold storage providing for more cost-efficient occasional access.
Also, data can be moved from any U‑Capture accessible storage (Media Store, Metadata Store, External Storage Location) to your defined External Storage Location. This means data can be moved multiple times using separate policies to allow for changing requirements – for example, you may want to archive your metadata to warm storage after a year, but then move it again to cold storage after two years to provide for more cost-effective long-term archive.
See Add a Move Media Policy for information on creating a Move Media policy using APIs.
See Add a Archive Metadata Policy for information on creating an Archive Metadata policy using APIs.
Transcription Policies
Use Transcription Policies to automatically control which call recordings (stored or live audio) are sent for transcription (voice to text) once a transcription service is configured. You can define exactly which recordings to send for transcription, which can be useful in restricting the utilization of transcription services to provide efficient cost and capacity models.
Transcribe
Optional transcription services can be deployed with U‑Capture to provide voice to text services. The Transcribe Policy can be used to define exactly which calls will be transcribed. This can provide for efficient utilization of transcription services both in terms of cost and capacity.
See Add a Transcription Policy for information on creating a Transcription policy using APIs.
Export Policies
Use Export policies to specify recordings to export to your defined endpoints and trigger the export automatically.
Note
One off/manual exports can be created using APIs as well, see Data Export APIs for more details.
Call Push: Use Call Push Policies to export specified calls to defined endpoints post call. See Add a Call Push Export Policy for information on creating a Call Push policy using APIs.
Real-Time Audio: Use Real-time Audio Policies to export specified calls to defined endpoints in real-time as the call is recorded. See Add a Real-Time Audio Export Policy for information on creating a Real-Time Audio policy using APIs.
Access Control Policies
Use Access Control policies to assign granular access permissions for your U‑Capture Users using call Filters (which calls) and Claims (which groups/users in your Organization Hierarchy).
Media Playback and Metadata Access: Combines the below policies to allow media and metadata access for your defined recordings. See Add an Access Control Policy for information on creating an Access Control policy using APIs.
Once an access control policy is created, a claims map must be attached to that policy to determine which users and groups should get access to the conversations that match the policy's filter, see Attach a Claims Map for details.
Locks Policies
Use Locks policies to automatically lock calls where call metadata matches specified calls filters, ensuring that calls are retained in the system and are not deleted. This provides an automated legal hold system for your captured calls.
Locks: See Add a Locks Policy for information on creating a Locks policy using APIs.
Note
Locks policies are used to automatically lock captured calls based on calls filters, however calls can also be locked manually either live or post call.
Considerations and Requirements
Obviously there are many considerations and requirements when designing or updating policies, but here are a few considerations that may help, and a few requirements you must follow:
Call Age
Use the call age filter/attributes to apply a Storage Policy to recordings once they reach the set age.
Historic Recordings/New Recordings
Use Start/End Date metadata filters to only apply a policy to historic recordings, “new” recordings only, or from/to/between a specific date and time.
Specific Recordings
Use general metadata filters to apply a policy to specific recordings. For example, only apply a policy to recordings from a specific team. You can set as many filters as you need, as well as using advanced search logic, to be as specific or as broad as you like.
Multiple Policies and Policy Priorities
You can define as many policies as you need. In general, Uniphore recommends that you select and define your policies carefully, apply them consistently, and try to avoid conflicts. Make use of the Priority setting to define the order that policies are applied – for example, you may want to purge data before applying an archive policy to perhaps avoid unnecessary transfers.
Multiple Moves
As mentioned, data can be moved multiple times using multiple archive/storage policies to allow for changing requirements.
External Storage Locations
As mentioned, External Archive Storage locations provide additional “hot, warm, cool, or cold storage” facilities. If you need additional storage locations added to your system, please contact Uniphore support.
Retention Policy Data Types
When you define a retention (purge) policy, you can decide whether to delete the entire recording (media, metadata, transcription), or just the media, or the metadata & transcription. In general, you’ll likely just remove all data for the recording, but Uniphore have provided a flexible approach to allow you to delete data in isolation. However, this can clearly impact your ability to retrieve data within U‑Capture:
Removing just the media would allow the Conversation record to be searched and retrieved and allow you to view the transcription, but the media (audio, video, message) would no longer be available. This may be useful in circumstances where you need to retain the record, but the media is no longer required within U‑Capture.
Removing just the metadata and transcription data would mean that you could no longer search for or replay the conversation within U‑Capture. This may be useful where external systems are being used to retrieve and replay the open format media (WAV/OPUS) from U‑Capture managed storage.