Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/397780
ByRaphaelSatter TheAssociatedPress LONDON "Thiscallmaybe monitored." You hear it every time you phone your bank about a lost credit card or an un- expected charge. You may realize your bank is record- ing you, but did you know it could be taking your bio- metric data, too? An Associated Press in- vestigation has found that two of America's biggest retail banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co. — are quietly recording the biometric de- tails of some callers' voices to weed out fraud. The tech- nology, sometimes called voiceprinting, is aimed at bad guys rather than legit- imate customers, but legal and privacy experts alike still have reservations about the practice. "Reducing fraud is a good thing," said Jay Stanley, an analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. But he warned that "we can't anticipate what bright new uses this database will be put to in the future." Blacklists help banks by alerting them to repeat calls from clever crooks who try to break into peo- ple's accounts armed with personal data gleaned from credit bureau reports or sto- len in high-profile cyberat- tacks like the ones which have rocked Target and other major U.S. retailers. Mark Lazar, a vice presi- dent at Verint Systems Inc., said that when combined with other fraud detection techniques, voice biometric blacklists were effectively blocking the bad guys from banks' call centers. "Within a few months we see a 90 percent reduction in the types of calls these fraud- sters are making," he said. The technology is win- ning converts fast. Avivah Litan, an analyst with tech- nology research firm Gart- ner, estimates that by next year, 25 major U.S. call cen- ters will be using some form of voiceprint technology, a five-fold increase over last year. As it stands, seven ma- jor American financial in- stitutions are already us- ing blacklists or have run pilots, said Shirley Inscoe, an analyst with the Aite Group, a research and ad- visory firm. Inscoe declined to iden- tify the institutions, but said they largely saw them as a quiet and effective way of dealing with fraud. "It's in the background. It doesn't affect the call in any way," said Inscoe. "Nobody even knows it's happening." Many governments and businesses use voiceprint- ing openly. A recent AP survey of 10 leading voice biometric ven- dors found that more than 65 million people world- wide have had their voice- prints taken, and that sev- eral banks, including Bar- clays PLC in Britain and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, are in the process of introducing their cus- tomers to the technology. But fighting fraud hap- pens more discreetly. One person familiar with Verint's deployment said that the company's tech- nology has been at work at Chase's credit card arm since last year, when Verint's predecessor, Victrio, was helping screen roughly 1 million calls a month. Two people familiar with how the technology is being used at Wells Fargo said the San Francisco-based bank struck a deal for a similar voice biometric blacklist provided by Israel-based NICE Systems Ltd. Chase spokeswoman Pa- tricia Wexler said the com- pany was "exploring many types of biometric authen- tication," but did not use voice biometric technol- ogy with customers. She declined to say whether the company was using the technology to screen calls for suspected criminals. Banks may run into trou- ble when they deploy voice biometric technology se- cretly, legal experts say. That's because some states, such as Illinois and Texas, restrict the collection or sharing of biometric data. A confidential company memo obtained by the AP provides some insight into companies' attempts to build legal cover for their work. The document, dated Aug. 1, 2013, lays out NICE's plans for the creation of a blacklist shared across a consortium of different companies. It carries ad- vice from NICE to U.S. banks suggesting that they deal with issues of consent by changing the traditional message at the beginning of each call to say: "This call may be monitored, recorded and processed for quality assurance and fraud pre- vention purposes." "Creating a voiceprint from the call falls under 'processing,'" the memo ex- plains. "Sharing the voice- prints within the consor- tium is for the purposes of fraud prevention." DATA MINING Banksharvestcallers'voiceprintstofightfraud RICHARDDREW—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Pedestrian traffic moves past A Chase branch in New York. Chase and Wells Fargo, two of America's biggest retail banks, are quietly taking some callers' voiceprints to fight fraud, an Associated Press investigation has found. EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Barack Obama tours Cross Campus, a collaborative space that brings together freelancers, creative professionals, entrepreneurs and startup teams, on Thursday in Santa Monica. By Julie Pace The Associated Press WASHINGTON For Pres- ident Barack Obama, the stark reality of the loom- ing midterm elections is that the best outcome for his party gets him nothing but two more years of the status quo. Two more years of a di- vided Congress. Two more years battling a Republi- can-led House that sees lit- tle overlap with the presi- dent's priorities. And two more years that are likely to pass without the kind of legacy-building legislation that has eluded the pres- ident throughout his sec- ond term. And yet to White House aides, it sure beats the al- ternative — a Republican takeover of the Senate. "Who sets the agenda in the Senate matters in a big way," said Dan Pfei- ffer, Obama's senior ad- viser. If Republicans take the Senate, Pfeiffer pre- dicted a "doubling down on the (Texas Republican Sen.) Ted Cruz, shutdown, hostage-taking" approach to government." The reality is that Obama's advisers have low expectations for pass- ing major legislation even if Democrats hang onto the Senate. That's been a struggle for Obama ever since the GOP won the House four years ago and will likely get even harder as both parties turn their attention toward the 2016 presidential election and lawmakers get even more reluctant to take on tough issues. With three weeks until Election Day, Republicans have a takeover of Con- gress within their sights. The party is likely to ex- tend its majority in the House and needs to pick up just six seats to grab control of the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade. Obama enters the cam- paign's homestretch with approval ratings hover- ing near the lowest point of his presidency, forcing Democratic candidates to distance themselves from their party's leader. Losing control of the Senate could cement the impression of a politically impotent, lame- duck president more than two years before the end of his term. In a flurry of fundrais- ers this fall, Obama has cast the elections as cru- cial to his efforts to raise the minimum wage, insti- tute equal pay legislation and boost infrastructure spending. "I hope that in these midterms you feel a sense of urgency," he told donors in California last week. Beyond the long-shot prospects for major legis- lation, White House aides point to the impact a Dem- ocratic-led Senate would have in helping Obama to get nominees confirmed, including his upcoming pick for attorney general and potential Supreme Court openings. A Dem- ocratic Senate majority would give the president a firewall to prevent GOP efforts to repeal or scale back some of his most sig- nificant achievements, in- cluding his massive health care overhaul and sweep- ing financial reform leg- islation. And it would al- low the White House to fend off any Senate inves- tigations of the adminis- tration. It's hardly the kind of ambitious and inspiring agenda Obama forecast in his two presidential bids. With that in mind, some Democratic strate- gists have speculated that both the president and the party might actually be better served if Repub- licans were to take control of the Senate. Few Democrats will make that case publicly in the closing weeks of a high-stakes campaign. But privately, some strategists suggest that Republicans may feel pressure to show they can be productive in power, allowing Obama to forge alliances with a GOP Senate on issues like tax reform and perhaps even a compromise on an immi- gration overhaul. Indeed, past presidents have had some luck in forging agreements with the opposing party, includ- ing Bill Clinton, who over- came staunch opposition from Republicans to work with the party to pass a balanced budget and wel- fare reform. Obama and the midterm elections: What's at stake? POLITICS By Ellen Knickmeyer The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Three fault segments running be- neath Northern California and its roughly 15 million people are overdue for a ma- jor earthquake, including one that lies northeast of San Francisco and near the dams and canals that sup- ply much of the state's wa- ter, according to a geologi- cal study published Monday. The three segments and one other in Northern Cal- ifornia are loaded with enough tension to produce quakes of magnitude 6.8 or greater, according to a geo- logical study published Mon- day, according to a geologi- cal study published Monday. They include the little- known Green Valley fault, which lies northeast of San Francisco and near the dams and canals that sup- ply much of California's wa- ter. Underestimated by ge- ologists until now, the fault running between the cit- ies of Napa and Fairfield is primed for a magni- tude-7.1 quake, according to researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and San Francisco State University. The water supplies of the San Francisco Bay area, southern California and the farm-rich Central Valley de- pend on the man-made wa- ter system ferrying supplies from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, noted James Lienkaemper, the U.S. Geological Survey geologist who was lead author of the study. The Green Valley fault is last believed to have rup- tured sometime in the 1600s. The study shows the state "needs to consider more se- riously" the earthquake risk in that area, Lienkaemper said by phone. All of the four vulnerable fault segments belong to the San Andreas fault system, the geological dividing line that marks where the west- ern half of California shifts northwest and away from the rest of North America at about 2 inches a year. The other fault sections that have built up enough tension for a temblor with a magnitude of 6.8 or greater are the northern Calaveras and Hayward faults in the east San Francisco Bay area and the Rodgers Creek fault to the north, scientists con- cluded in a study published in the Bulletin of the Seismo- logical Society of America. Geologists reached their conclusions partly through regular data readings that geologists and San Fran- cisco State University geol- ogy students began in 1979 along fault lines. The track- ing now features annual readings at 80 monitoring sites at 29 sections of faults in northern California. The surveys measure fault creep, movements of frac- tions of inches that slowly re- lease strain on some faults. When no fault creep is re- corded, a fault is considered locked, and stress builds un- til an earthquake unlocks it. Roughly two-thirds of the 1,250 miles that comprise the five major branches of the San Andreas fault fea- ture fault creep, the study concludes. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Fo ur f au lt s ar e pr im ed for big earthquakes The U.S Fish & Wildlife Service is committed to providing access to all of its programs, activities and facilities for all participants, including individuals with disabilities. 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