Voice verification and your privacy

Biometrics are measurements of people’s physical characteristics or behaviours, like the sound of your voice, your fingerprint or the shape of your face. We recognise that this information is sensitive, and you need to know that we will respect it and keep it safe.

This page does not cover how we handle your personal information in other situations, like when we make a decision about your claim. To learn more about how we handle your personal information and health information when you engage with us, read our privacy notice.

Our privacy notice

We’re trialling our voice verification service until 31 July 2025. If we decide to stop using this service, we will delete the biometric information we collected from you.

Collecting and using your biometric information

We record your voice to verify your identity each time you call. We’ll compare this against your voiceprint to check that it’s you who is calling.  

Voice verification is optional, and we won’t collect your biometric information unless you choose to use the service. We’ll ask you over the phone whether you would like to enrol in voice verification.

When you first enrol, we’ll make short audio recordings of your voice. We’ll use these to create a ‘voiceprint’ and connect this to your phone number. This is similar to a fingerprint, uniquely identifying the sound of your voice.

Each time you call us we will make another audio recording of your voice. Because people’s voices change over time, we’ll use the new recording to match against the initial voiceprint and to update the voiceprint over time.

If you and another person share a phone number, you can both enrol. However, we’ll ask for some additional information each time you call us, to help us check who is calling.

Voice verification is not available when:

• you call from a landline phone
• we don’t have your phone number in our claims records
• you call from a different phone number than normal or do not have caller ID
• you call from an overseas phone number
• you’re under 16 or are otherwise unable to freely consent
• you call our provider or business phone lines

In some circumstances, our automated systems might incorrectly let you enrol in voice verification. Before you’re fully enrolled, our team will check whether you’re eligible. If there’s been an error, our staff will opt you out and we will delete your biometric information.

Sharing your biometric information

In most situations, we do not share your biometric information with others.

We may be permitted or required by law to use or share your biometric information. Examples include:

• The Privacy Act 2020 may allow us to use or share your information, eg for court proceedings or to lessen a serious threat to someone’s life or health.
• Australia’s Assistance and Access Act 2018 and the United States’ CLOUD Act may allow Australian and US law enforcement and security agencies to access your information. This is because your biometric information is stored on Amazon servers in Australia and these overseas laws may apply to it.

Your choices

Using voice verification is optional. If you choose not to enrol, it won’t affect your claim or how we work with you. When you call us, we’ll verify your identity by asking you a series of questions instead.

If you’ve already enrolled, you can opt out at any time by contacting us. This won’t affect your claim or how we work with you.

We know that you might not be ready to enrol when you call us. Because of this, we may regularly ask you to enrol, even if you’ve opted out before. If you don’t want to be asked again, you can permanently opt out by asking next time you call us.

Your rights to manage your information

You have rights over your information. These include the right to know or access what we hold about you, and the right to correct or update your information.

Biometric information can be technical and complicated, so you can also ask us to explain what we hold and how we use your voiceprint and voice recordings.

Request your personal information using the online form, or by contacting us.

Request for personal information

If you have concerns about our response, contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Keeping your biometric information safe

We follow recognised security practices and securely store the biometric information we collect. We implement privacy safeguards to protect and respect your information. Your biometric information is held on Amazon servers in Australia.

We keep this information as long as is mandated by the Public Records Act 2005. When this information is no longer required, we dispose of it securely. We delete your biometric information when:

• you contact us to opt out
• you haven’t contacted us for five years