Big Brother row as taxman tapes 5 million voices
THE tax man has secretly recorded millions of people’s unique ‘voiceprints’ in a controversial ID scheme that privacy campaigners say may be illegal.
The Government’s revenue and customs department (HMRC) is now facing an investigation by data watchdogs after admitting it failed to ask for permission to store the recordings.
Since the start of last year, 5.1 million callers to tax hotlines have been forced to utter the phrase ‘My voice is my password’, according to figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the campaign group Big Brother Watch. The sound of each voice is recorded and stored to be used as a high-tech security check. When the person calls back, their voice acts as a password to unlock their account.
The technology is also used by high street banks. But privacy campaigners are alarmed that there is no opportunity to opt out of the HMRC scheme, which they say may breach the law requiring active consent to be given for private data to be stored.
There is also the chilling possibility of other Government departments using the voiceprints – and a data breach by criminal gangs could see voice IDs used to hack into private bank accounts.
Last night, the director of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Taxpayers are being railroaded into a mass ID scheme that is incredibly disturbing. The taxman is building Big Brother Britain by imposing biometric ID cards on the public by t he back door. The rapid growth of the British database state is alarming.
‘ These voice IDs could allow ordinary citizens to be identified by Government agencies across other areas of their private lives.
‘HMRC should delete the five million voiceprints they’ve taken in this shady scheme, observe the law and show greater respect to the public.’
Callers to tax hotlines are told they can avoid standard security questions, involving their dates of birth and account numbers, simply by using their voice.
The automated HMRC script tells them: ‘It is the fastest and most secure way for us to know it is really you we are talking to.’
The callers are then ordered to repeat ‘My voice is my password’ several times and if they try to object, they are told: ‘Sorry, it’s important you repeat exactly the same phrase.’
Alarmed about the little-known system, Big Brother Watch asked HMRC to provide details and was told that as of March this year, ‘5.1 million customers were enrolled with a Voice ID’.
Asked how it obtained callers’ consent, it conceded the system currently operates ‘on the basis of the implied consent of the customer’ but said it was developing a new process ‘which will be operated on the basis of the explicit consent of the customer’.
Under a new privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), organisations must ensure that customers have given consent to ways in which their data is used.
Big Brother Watch has now complained about Voice ID to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has said it will be ‘making inquiries’.
An HMRC spokesman said: ‘Our Voice ID system is very popular with customers as it gives a quick and secure route into our systems. Voice ID data storage meets the highest Government and industry standards for security.’
‘A mass ID scheme that is incredibly disturbing’