Nigel Farage, Coutts, and a tale of biometric mishaps.
Friday 21 July
I am not alone in having a problem with my biometrics. Or, more precisely, the fancy system installed on my National Westminster banking app to protect me from a world crammed with scammers intent on electronic theft.
By one of those coincidences, my irritation with Nat West this week coincided with that of the politician Nigel Farage whose ire was directed at its subsidiary
Coutts.
A year or so ago, I finally gave in to the bank’s urging for me to make my banking super secure. They had already prevented any harm coming to me from my local branch by closing it down. At the time, I prepared for the trauma of switching to a rival bank, only to find the other local banks had already moved, taking their hole-in-the-wall cash points with them.
My new system is operated through my iPhone. I recently accepted the move to greater security through a biometric system. To set it up, it seemed like an extension of the fingerprint recognition. I took a selfie which once accepted gave me even greater security.
It seems that it analyses multiple parts of my face, including the placement of my eyes and the width of my nose, and combines all these features into a unique code that identifies me. It seems that chances of a random person being able to unlock my phone are one in a million.
Unfortunately, when I needed it urgently this week, the system was so secure it refused to recognise me. The guidance of my selfie image into its frame felt like I was manoeuvring a complex space-docking exercise. When achieved, the instruction was simple. Blink.
I blinked, blinked and blinked again. System said it did not recognise me. After several failures I was deemed a failure. I could try again by logging off and then on again.
I tried different light levels, with similar negative results. If only I still had a local branch of Nat West with a real human to help me.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned, Nigel Farage was also having a very frustrating time dealing with Coutts, a subsidiary of Nat West.
