PostFinance has lodged an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court against a ruling made by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC). The ruling requires PostFinance to redesign its voice recognition procedure, which has been established for years, by 1 October 2025. This includes deleting all existing voiceprints and introducing explicit customer consent in the form of a spoken “yes”. PostFinance considers these measures to be legally unfounded and disproportionate, in particular because the FDPIC was informed before the ruling was issued that a new procedure with a spoken “yes” would be introduced at the beginning of 2026. PostFinance has decided to lodge an appeal against this ruling with the Federal Administrative Court. PostFinance emphasizes that its legal position has not changed under the new Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and that its voice recognition procedure is legally compliant.
PostFinance to lodge an appeal against the FDPIC’s ruling with the Federal Administrative Court
For years and in the interest of customer satisfaction, PostFinance has been using voice recognition that allows users to identify themselves easily during telephone consultations. This eliminates the need for customers to answer lots of identification questions and is compliant with data protection requirements. The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) has conducted an investigation into the specific voice recognition procedure and issued a ruling. PostFinance has lodged an appeal against the FDPIC’s ruling with the Federal Administrative Court. The Federal Administrative Court’s decision is still pending.
Technical upgrade from 2026 – consent given by spoken “yes”
With the planned upgrade to a more modern voice dialogue system at the beginning of 2026, which is independent of the FDPIC’s ruling, PostFinance will obtain a spoken “yes” from customers as consent for the use of voice recognition. PostFinance will thereby fulfil the FDPIC’s requirement. It informed the FDPIC of this upgrade before the ruling was issued. For this reason, PostFinance finds the FDPIC’s approach difficult to comprehend and regrets that no dialogue took place.
Tried-and-tested voice recognition for customer satisfaction
A large proportion of customers benefit from and appreciate the ease of identity verification via voice recognition. They can describe their concerns to PostFinance’s customer advisors on the phone within a few seconds and do not have to answer multiple questions. The voiceprint is not generated if the customer does not wish it to be. The voiceprints are not voice recordings. They cannot be used outside the PostFinance system and are protected against misuse.