Class Action Lawsuit Says Navy Federal Credit Union, AI Tech Company Verint ‘Tap’ Customer Service Calls

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A proposed class action accuses Navy Federal Credit Union of allowing customer service calls to be secretly “tapped,” recorded and used by a third party without consumers’ knowledge or consent.

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The 21-page privacy lawsuit says that Navy Federal uses services provided by co-defendant Verint Systems, Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI) software and analytics company whose products are designed to intercept, transcribe and analyze customer communications in real time.

By utilizing Verint’s technology to “eavesdrop” on Navy Federal’s customer service calls without first obtaining authorization from callers, the defendants have run afoul of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, which prohibits third-party monitoring and recording of telephone calls without prior consent, the suit claims.

Per the case, when a consumer calls Navy Federal’s customer service line, the conversation is recorded by Verint’s “Real-Time Agent Assist” service, which transcribes the contents of the call and captures the consumer’s tone, pitch, speech pace and other acoustic signatures. The AI-powered service then uses this data to make suggestions about how call center agents can handle the call, the complaint explains.

Likewise, Verint’s “Speech Analytics” service transcribes each recorded conversation and uses AI to analyze the contents of the communication as well as the caller’s speech patterns, the filing relays.

The lawsuit alleges that, in addition to “wiretapping” and recording customer calls, Verint uses intercepted communications to enhance its products and train its AI models.

When a consumer calls the credit union’s support line, they are notified that the conversation “may be recorded for quality assurance purposes,” the suit states.

“This tells reasonable consumers that Navy Federal itself may use the recording to train its customer service agents or improve its products,” the case charges. “It does not tell reasonable consumers that a third-party (Verint) will intercept, record, and use the call for its own purposes.”

As the complaint tells it, neither defendant has disclosed to customers that their calls are being recorded and used, nor have the companies obtained the requisite consent before “listening in” on consumers’ private communications.

The lawsuit looks to represent any California resident who called or was called by a company that uses Verint’s Real-Time Agent Assist or Speech Analytics services and did not consent to Verint intercepting, listening to or recording the call.

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