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To Pay With Your Credit Card, Please Speak Up

Posted by samzenpus on from the voice-activated dept.

prostoalex writes "It's reasonable easy for a thief to steal the social security number and bank account information (which is printed on a check) as well as an address. The next generation of financial tools are fighting this problem. Business Week talks about voice verification in future debit and credit cards. "Here's how it works: A special sensor on the credit card stores its owner's previously recorded voiceprint in digital form. When the owner receives a new card, he or she speaks a password into the sensor on the card. If the voiceprint matches, the card is activated.""

4 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. so.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So you speak to activate it.. and if you get a cold or have an accident and can't talk?

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    I like muppets.
    1. Re:so.. by DevNull+Ogre · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The need for a side channel to serve the voice challenged population presents a (possibly huge) problem. If somebody who legitimately cannot speak can activate a credit card without speaking, then so can the bad guys. That side channel will also need to be secure.

      Could it be done properly (so that the bad guys can't get around the system)? Probably. Will it? Probably not. And, like so much so-called security, we'll end up inconvenienced in exchange for little or no benefit.

      Not that it should need saying, but security systems such as this will need to cater to everybody, not just those of us with voices.

  2. Got to be better than the system here by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...where you type your PIN into a small box attached to the cash register.

    Because, as we all know, typing your PIN into someone elses computer system is by far the best way to keep it confidential.

    ATMs are at least owned by the bank and significantly harder to tamper with in a non-obvious way.

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    Beep beep.
  3. Why not SMS? by md17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would prefer that the Visa or Mastercard system sends me a SMS that I reply to in order to authorize the payment.