I call my credit card supplier to make a payment over the phone. This is because other payment methods are a shitshow¹. The robot says it will record my voice and use it for verification purposes. I’m not okay with that so I press buttons until a human comes on. I order the payment to draw from a checking acct. Then the operator transferred me a bot that said “state your name to confirm this payment”. Now what? I was trapped.
I wonder if this is something I should be giving a shit about. My data is routinely exfiltrated by criminals. I’m not sure if voice prints are being stolen in that way or how they might be used. Perhaps voice print is even more secure for the consumer. If the voiceprint cannot be used to create a voice, only to verify it, then a voice print may even be less useful for criminals than security questions. Any thoughts on this?
¹ (billpay is outsourced likely to a privacy abuser; will not do autopay because I want control [the purpose of privacy]; mailing a paper check is best for privacy but cannot be bothered for various reasons).
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Chances are the sound clip is stored as proof you made the transaction. If you call up a month later saying that wasn’t me then they have a voice clip of your name they can compare your voice to.
Just remember you can always change banks.
So IIUC, that clip is not just a voice print that verifies my voice, but a recording which can then be used to recreate my voice. Cyber criminals are going apeshit with all the AI and voice impersonation lately.
Banks are such a shit show there is no better alternative than what I have and ideally I would ditch all banks entirely. I really need to be able to force my bank to not keep my voice on record. But I suppose that’s not an option. I probably have no choice but to try to choose the least shitty bank over the others.
Get with a credit union. Far less fuckery.
You can have your bank mail a paper check, I’ve been doing this since the 90’s.
If they can do an electronic transfer, they will, after the initial check.
This used to be called Electronic Bill Pay. It’s amazing how many people are unaware of it. It just uses the exact same system they’re already using to transfer the funds, it’s just done under your direction.
I was doing this until everything started being paid 2-3 weeks late with Wells Fargo.
I know Wells Fargo is a shitshow but I banked 100% online until my wife wanted to get a joint checking account with them.
Ever since Simple went under I haven’t found a reliable bank with fast ACH (like ONE Finance until it sold out to Walmart), bill pay (like shitshow Wells Fargo) and multiple checking accounts (you can on Betterment but they give you just one debit card that can take an hour to reassign).
FFS I just want a decent bank.
I covered this in my footnote. Billpay services are free for a reason. Whatever that reason is, I don’t trust it. Banks themselves do not do the billpay service in house. They outsource it. Which means an outside 3rd party is getting that sensitive info and providing a service for free. Fuck that. I would rather buy stamps. (but I don’t do paper checks either for complex reasons)