Pipe 2SA4 Australian Tax Office Uses Voice for Authentication

Australian Tax Office Uses Voice for Authentication

by
Anonymous Coward
in security on (#2SA4)
A new voice recognition system in use by the ATO to identify customers. The system asks taxpayers to repeat a phrase to a voice print prove their identity. The system is expected to save up to 45 seconds per phone call. The ATO receives about 8 million calls each year, 6 million of which require identification checks, for a total of about 3125 days, or 75,000 hours, each year spent performing identity checking.

You can bet that the NSA and other agencies also has this technology. On the flip side, it could be useful for people to record telemarketers so we can build a database of the people who spam us with annoying phone calls.

History

2014-09-12 13:28
Consumer Voice Authentication: the Australian Tax Office's example
zafiro17@pipedot.org
How do you feel about the government maintaining a database of voice samples of everyone? If you're not against the practice, then Australia might be the place for you.

A new voice recognition system in use by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to identify customers. The system asks taxpayers to repeat a phrase in order to compare it to a voice print by which they can prove their identity. The system is expected to save up to 45 seconds per phone call. The ATO receives about 8 million calls each year, 6 million of which require identification checks, for a total of about 3125 days, or 75,000 hours, each year spent performing identity checking.

YOn the one side, that's interesting tech, was probably a fun database project for some team, and saves money. What's not to like? On the other hand, you can bet that the NSA and othesimilar agencies are also haemploying some version of this technology. So, who would like to step up to the microphone?

[Author note:
On the flip side, it could be useful for people to record telemarketers so we can build a database of the people who spam us with annoying phone calls.]
Reply 0 comments