Fidelity Voice Prints for Identity and Truth California Class Action

Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC uses a system to examine the voices of those who call it, the complaint for this class action alleges, to validate their identities and to determine whether the callers are telling the truth or not. But the complaint alleges that Fidelity does not get the customers’ express written consent for this recording and examination, as required by the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA).

The class for this action is all residents of California who had their voice prints or other voice stress patterns examined or recorded by Fidelity to determine the truth or falsity of their statements.

CIPA covers a variety of actions and circumstances concerning privacy. The complaint quotes one portion of it as prohibiting a person or entity from employing “any system which examines or records in any manner voice prints or other voice stress patterns of another person to determine the truth or falsity of statements made by such person without his or her express written consent given in advance of the examination or recordation.

The complaint alleges, “Creating a voice print requires extracting an individual’s phonetic features (including their unique speech patterns, tones, and other characteristics) from their voice.” Voices are unique to individuals, the complaint claims, so that they can identify individuals and may even tell something about the person’s behavioral traits.

Fidelity began examining consumer voice prints by at least 2017, the complaint alleges, and it began touting its use of what it calls Fidelity MyVoice on its website in 2018. The complaint alleges that the company only added a mention of the system in its terms and conditions in January 2021. While the company may have sent a notice of this to its customers, the complaint claims that “this would not satisfy the express written consent requirement of CIPA” because the customer must provide a signature or some other affirmative written consent.

When a consumer calls, the complaint alleges, Fidelity first records the call, then examines the stress patterns and other characteristics of the voice to form a voice print that it puts into a database. When it receives further calls from that person, the complaint alleges, it compares the voice print of new call to the one already on file for the consumer. Fidelity uses the voice prints not just to identity the caller but also to determine whether the statements the caller makes are true or false, the complaint alleges.

The complaint lists some “known audible indications of lying,” including such things as changes in breathing, changes in speech patterns, unusual rises or falls in vocal tone, odd inflections, not using personal pronouns, and so on.

The complaint claims the Fidelity system “uses the full audio of a call to determine its characteristics, meaning [Fidelity] analyzes unique acoustic and behavioral features of a caller’s voice, including stress patterns to determine truth or falsity of statements.”

This makes the system similar to applying a polygraph test, the complaint says, and adds, “Such a system is exactly what the California Legislature chose to regulate when it made it unlawful to use without express written consent.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: CIPA, Voice Print, Your Privacy