[discussion] Using teletext to escape voice printing

cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/disabled/t/346115

Banks have started capturing customers voice prints without consent. You call the bank and the robot’s greeting contains “your voice will be saved for verification purposes”. IIUC, these voice prints can be used artificially reconstruct your voice. So they could be exfiltrated by criminals who would then impersonate you.

I could be wrong about impersonation potential.. just fragments of my memory from what I’ve read. In any case, I don’t like my biometrics being collected without my control.

The countermeasure I have in mind is to call your bank using #Teletext (TTY). This is (was?) typically a special hardware appliance. As a linux user, TTY is what the text terminal is based on. So I have questions:

1. can a linux machine with a modem be used to convert a voice conversation to text? (edit: perhaps minimodem or asterisk?)

2. how widespread are TTY services? Do most banks support that, or is it just a few giant banks?

3. if street-wise privacy enthusiasts would theoretically start using TTY in substantial numbers, would it help the deaf community by increasing demand for TTY service, thus increasing the number of businesses that support it?

(update)

Another privacy benefit that comes to mind: bankers will sometimes start an unprovoked interrogation of intrusive questions irrelevant to your reason for calling, such as who you work for, how much you earn, career skill, etc. The realtime nature of a voice call puts you at a disadvantage whereby a delayed response can create suspicion. So you must answer quick and without stumbling. Quick answers also invite many questions. In a text conversation, a delay can simply mean that you stepped away for a moment. And presumabley a CSR is handling multiple conversations at once.

Some banks only have on file where I worked 2+ jobs ago. I don’t want to keep them up to date with more data, so I can take a moment to check my notes for where they think I still work.