Class Actions Claim Banks Analyze California Callers’ Voices Without Consent

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Five financial institutions have been hit with proposed class action lawsuits over their alleged use of biometric voice recognition software at call centers.

The five lawsuits—filed respectively against Bank of America, TD Ameritrade, Capital One, Fidelity Brokerage Services and TD Bank—claim the defendants have violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act by analyzing callers’ voiceprints to verify their identities without first obtaining written consent.

The similar cases each explain that the California Invasion of Privacy Act prohibits persons or entities from using a system to examine or record a person’s voiceprint or voice stress patterns to determine “the truth or falsity of statements made by such person” without first securing the individual’s express written consent.

According to the cases, each bank has implemented software at their call centers that stores a caller’s voiceprint—i.e., the unique pattern of a person’s voice—and uses the data to verify the person’s identity during subsequent calls. The lawsuits argue that each system’s analysis of callers’ voices to authenticate or refute their identities constitutes a use of voiceprints to determine the truth or falsity of an individual’s statements, as governed by the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

The suits claim that the financial heavyweights have failed to obtain the required consent from California callers before examining or recording their voices, noting that consent provided verbally over the phone is not enough to satisfy the statute’s express written consent mandate.

The lawsuit against Bank of America says the institution integrated voice recognition, algorithms and analytic software into its call centers “[n]o later than 2018.” 

Per the suits against TD Ameritrade and TD Bank, the affiliates began using a verification system called TD VoicePrint at their call centers around 2017 that “uses over 150 different characteristics that make up one’s voice and transcribes them in real time into a unique algorithm that cannot be replicated.”

Capital One implemented voice recognition and machine learning software into its call centers beginning in at least 2020, the suit against the bank alleges.

Finally, the case against Fidelity claims that the financial firm began analyzing callers’ voiceprints through a system called MyVoice as early as 2017.

The lawsuits look to represent California residents who had their voiceprints or other voice stress patterns examined or recorded by one of the financial institutions to determine the truth or falsity of their statements. 

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