Ditch passwords to improve security

This week Barclays will follow in First Direct’s footsteps and start using voice recognition technology to identify their customers over the phone, rather than relying on passwords.

Barclays will be actively encouraging customers who mainly contact the bank via phone to try the new system, which can typically identify an individual in just two phone calls.

As well as improving customer experience by removing potentially irritating pain points, Barclays' personal banking chief Steven Cooper says that even in trial stage the new system has already helped improve security, catching out fraudsters trying to access accounts over the phone.

Of course, this raises similar philosophical quandaries to those thrown up by the uptake of fingerprint identification. There’s not much that’s more personal than our voice or fingerprint, and at some point we’ll have to start thinking about how prepared we are to blur the boundaries of identity and identification.