[Discuss] Fidelity voice-recognition security?

[Bill Ricker]

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Kent Borg <kentborg at borg.org> wrote:

> On 11/21/2017 11:27 AM, Daniel Barrett wrote:
>
>> Anyone here bank at Fidelity?
>
>
Fido is not (yet) a bank. They perform some bank like functions
but are regulated by SEC not FRB and accounts are insured
accordingly.

But I kept my Employee account when they laid me off because
having been inside,
I think they're less rigged against the investor than the rest of
wallstreet.

(I still would recommend using mostly low-fee mutual funds not the premium
fee ones.)
​

> They are touting a new security feature
>> called "MyVoice" that opens up telephone access to your accounts
>> without a password. It uses voice recognition to verify your identity.
>>
>>    https://www.fidelity.com/security/fidelity-myvoice/overview
>>
>> I declined the feature. Fingerprinting a voice uniquely over a
>> low-quality telephone line? I can't imagine that's more secure than a
>> non-obvious password. What does the security crowd here think?
>>
>

> Terrible idea.
>

​
They need to match convenience with eTrade/Schwab/... to attract/retain
certain demographics.

It's better than '1234' or 'Password1'​ for _that_ crowd,
but I won't be using it.

And would not expect anyone looking at this thread to either.


First question: How secure is it? I am skeptical. Did you see the story
> about the 10-year old whose face was similar enough to what the neural nets
> concluded his parents look like, that he could unlock either of their Apple
> phones? Be skeptical.
>

​yeah, I would think it was  interesting as a 2FA extra layer
but not as ​in-lieu-of all other authentication.



> Second question: The idea seems to make access more convenient.

But do I WANT my retirement savings to be so convenient?

Security through cumbersomeness is real and has value.

Safe deposit boxes are cumbersome to access, too: and that is a feature.


Agreed.
Risk analysis is based on both ease to attack and value.
​​
If one is day-trading with massive leverage,
and need to be able to sell NOW whilst walkabout to avoid ​massive losses,
the convenience may be worth it.