Privacy and security of financial interactions

What is it?

When dealing with finances, people expect aspects of their personal information to be private and only known to those who have permission. Managing this can be challenging and can require both financial and digital literacy.

How personal information remains private is a matter of security. Security can be physical, like a locked safe or a door alarm, or digital, like encrypting data or using some sort of authentication. Security is often purposely designed make an action more difficult as a way to deter unauthorized access. People with disabilities, who are Deaf, or have intersectional identities often deal with increased barriers due to these security measures.

Articles

This Articles section includes research papers, news articles, and other information published on the Internet.

• “Cyber Security: Breaking Down Barriers” by Filipe Denis / Information Technology Association of Canada, Bank of Canada. The article describes the interconnected and broad approach to tackling cyber security, the need for regulations to allow more information sharing, and collaboration as a counter-measure against cyber crime.

• “Usability of Biometric Authentication Methods for Citizens with Disabilities” by Ronna N. Ten Brink, Rebecca Scollan / The MITRE Corporation. A paper that evaluates the effectiveness of authentication methods (fingerprint, eye, palm, and PIN recognition). The study concludes that people with disabilities have a low completion rate, and that completion rate should be a metric for a successful authentication scheme. The study also proposes exploring adaptable positioning and not relying on a single authentication method, but provide alternate methods of authentication and access.

• “A New Authentication Approach for People with Upper Extremity Impairment” by Lewis, Hebert, et. al. / IEEE. Paper investigates using heart rhythm, wearable devices and head-mounted devices as an authentication method. The paper reports a 4% to 10% error rate amoung 6 participants.

Experiences and observations

This Experiences section includes stories, perspectives, and experiences submitted by people experiencing disabilities or is Deaf. Where necessary, personal information have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.

• Sam received a phone call from his bank that his account is frozen. He discovered that someone has his PIN and has been using it to make online purchases. He suspects that this is because he must trust his many different attendants with his PIN and card to buy groceries and essentials, as during COVID, cash is no longer accepted.

• Darren has been locked out of his account multiple times because, due to his cerebral palsy, he can’t enter the correct password in time.

• Lucy wishes to open an account with a pharmacy delivery service to get her medications delivered but can’t get past the CAPTCHA on the registration page because she can’t see.

Other issues being raised or addressed

• This section is work in progress.

External groups

The External Groups section contains links to organizations or individuals who are working, advocating, or innovating in this space. The parties mentioned in this list are not endorsed by the IDRC.

• There is nothing in this list currently.

Contribute to this topic

Do you have an article or resource to add to this page? Do you have an experience you would like to share? Add your insight and perspective to this topic by using one of the following options:

• Use the comment feature on this page by either: 1) highlighting text on the page and select “Comment”; or 2) using the “Comment” section at the bottom of the page.

• Completing the article submission web form or by completing the article submission Word document and emailing it to jhung@ocadu.ca.

For your privacy and security, please avoid sharing personally identifiable information such as names and specific locations.