TD Bank Voice Prints for Identity and Truth California Class Action

TD Bank, NA examines the voices of customers who call it, the complaint for this class action alleges, and uses them to validate their identities and to determine whether the person is telling the truth or not. The bank claims that customers can enroll in this TD Voiceprint program, but the complaint alleges that it has been using the system for a time without first getting customers’ consent, which the complaint claims is a violation of 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 TD Bank to determine the truth or falsity of their statements.

CIPA covers a range of actions and circumstances. The complaint quotes one portion of it, relevant to this case, 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, just as fingerprints are, so that they can identify individuals and may even tell something about the person’s behavioral traits.

TD Bank began employing its TD VoicePrint technology in its call centers around 2017, the complaint alleges, using “over 150 different characteristics that make up one’s voice and transcribes them in real time into a unique algorithm that cannot be replicated.”

When a consumer calls, the complaint alleges, TD 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 the same person, the complaint alleges, it compares the voice print of that call to those already on file for the consumer. TD Bank 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 TD Bank system “uses the full audio of a call to determine its characteristics, meaning [TD Bank] 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