Legality Print E-mail
organizationThere is no simple answer to the question of legality of Call Recording.
Every country has its own laws about the legality of Call recording, please check with your distributor for more information.
However, as manufacturer of Call recorders, we have a few thing to say about this subject.

Telephone calls are an essential tool to arrange work, schedule meetings and come to detailed agreements. A verbal agreement made over the telephone is just as legal as any verbal agreement. Automated recording of telephone calls in business and government is very practical and in many cases essential. The cost of mistakes as a result of a verbal arrangement cannot be justified. The security aspect of recording is essential for a lot of organizations. The question is; how to respect the privacy of employees and customers? We believe that we have practical and legal answers to that question. The laws may differ between countries but in essence the problem and the solutions are the same.

An organization that applies Call Recording has the obligation to define sensible procedures that protect the privacy of persons involved. These procedures differ between organizations.There is an important difference between calls made to a medical emergency centre and calls made to a private person. The first should be recorded, to make sure all information is accessible for the physician, the latter should remain private.

The first step is always to define the goals. They may vary between organizations. When goods are stolen it can be justifiable to record private calls while this must be avoided in most other cases. When employees are the victim of harassing, annoying, obscene, or threatening telephone calls, it is important to record all calls, but there is no need to keep them. Therefore it is essential that an organization specifies their reasons for Call Recording. These reasons may change over time, but the management must be aware of them.

It is impossible to guarantee that recorded calls will be accepted by a judge as evidence. Even though it is possible to take precautions against manipulation of the recordings, a judge has the freedom to decide not to listen to them. Recordings may also prevent people from going to court, because they accept the evidence when presented with it. When you hear your own voice it becomes difficult to deny what you once said. Some judges are, in difficult cases willing to accept recordings as additional evidence. As with anything the procedures of your business around recording play an important role. When your procedures are of high standards it becomes more difficult to deny the evidence given with a recording.

Usually there is legislation in a country around Call Recording. It is important to be informed about it. In many cases the laws are far from clear. This is due to technological change and the increasing acceptance of security. In most countries the legislation is a dynamic field.
The social framework in which Call Recording is placed is usually more important then the legislation. When the goals of Call Recording are specified properly, it becomes easy to see which calls should and which calls should not be recorded.

Once the framework in which Call Recording takes place is understood, it is possible to define procedures. The procedures must answer several questions:

  • which calls are being recorded
  • how long do you keep a recording
  • do you always announce a recording is taking place
  • are callers always aware of recording
  • can one of the parties calling decide to record or not to record, or to keep or not keep the recording
  • where and how do you store a recording
  • what methods are there for access to recordings (egg. LAN, CD, etc.)
  • who is allowed to listen to the recording