St. Louis, August 3, 2004 - TradeHarbor® (www.tradeharbor.com), a leading provider of voice authentication services, today announced that Innovent, an entrepreneurial innovation unit in Nokia (NYSE: NOK), has invested in the company. The two companies have also signed an agreement to collaborate in mapping the emerging market for voice authentication and its implications for mobility.
TradeHarbor's Voice Signature Service(SM) solution leverages the unique biometric attributes of your voice to provide advanced authentication and authorization of customer interactions. The Voice Signature Service (VSS) is uniquely designed to meet the American Bar Association's three-part test for a legally-binding signature. The VSS captures the actual utterances tied to a specific transaction as an audit trail, providing a level of accountability for remote transactions.
"Verifying the identities of people initiating remote credit card transactions is a fundamental security requirement in our increasingly connected world," said Paul S. Heirendt, CEO of TradeHarbor, Inc. "Following extensive consumer testing, several leading credit card issuers are now preparing to enroll their customers' voices to then validate the authenticity of future inbound customer service calls and, eventually, telephone and online orders. The goal of TradeHarbor is to support financial institutions in enrolling and authenticating their tens of millions of customers so that consumers can simply use their voice as a secure identifier for a wide range of uses."
"Voice authentication provides an effective, user-friendly tool for enabling trusted relationships in an increasingly decentralized world," added Stephanie Keller-Bottom, Director of Innovent. "The market for voice authentication is rapidly evolving due to the dramatic increases in credit card fraud and identity theft. TradeHarbor is a leader in this field and we are pleased to be collaborating with them as they develop the market for leveraging voice as a unique authentication tool. Our relationship is reflective of both the value that they bring to Innovent and the extensive experience, network and resources that Innovent brings to TradeHarbor."
About TradeHarbor
TradeHarbor creates innovative fraud and identity protection services, which enable trusted interactions in today's digital economy. TradeHarbor's Voice Signature ServiceSM registry allows consumers to be authenticated using their voice and its unique biometric attributes, to provide authentication, authorization, and audit trails for all interactions. Consumers need enroll only once through a trusted institution and thereafter be accurately authenticated across a wide range of industries, companies and applications. For more information visit www.tradeharbor.com.
About Innovent
Innovent, an entrepreneurial innovation unit in Nokia, connects to the pulse of emerging markets to explore innovation options for Nokia. Innovent offers a collaborative environment for early-stage entrepreneurs working on concepts that facilitate connections between people, their communities, and the things that matter to them. Innovent offers expertise and resources to clarify the opportunity behind their visions and accelerate the process between concept development and commercialization, within a framework of mutual trust. For more information about Innovent visit www.nokia.com/innovent or contact Janine Buis at Janine.buis@nokia.com.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia is dedicated to enhancing people's lives and productivity by providing easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, and solutions for imaging, games, media, mobile network operators and businesses. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on five major exchanges.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia Americas
Communications
Tel. +1 914 368 0423
E-mail: communications.corp@nokia.com
Janine Buis
Innovent
Tel. +1 914.441.6594
E-mail: janine.buis@nokia.com
Paul S. Heirendt
President, CEO
TradeHarbor, Inc.
Tel. +1 314.682.4411
E-mail: pheirendt@tradeharbor.com
www.nokia.com