LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
The information provided on this page is intended only to give a summary and general overview regarding the law and call recordings. It is not intended to be comprehensive, complete or current, nor should it be construed as providing legal advice in any way. You should always seek your own legal counsel or other professional advice before acting or relying on any information provided.
Now that we have the disclaimer out of the way…
A key point to remember about Call Recording and the Law is that the legality of making call recordings differs from country to country and in some cases, even by state or territory.
As a best practice, we recommend that you make all parties aware that a call is being recorded. This includes parties on inbound and outbound calls and your employees.
As a general rule, you must inform the caller of the call recording that is about to take place and provide an option for the caller or callee to request that it not be recorded. If they inform you that they do not wish the call to be recorded, the onus is on you to comply to their request.
The CallN service can be configured to allow users to stop a recording by entering two numbers on the telephone keypad during the call to immediately stop recording. What these numbers are can be set by your CallN administrator.
Verbal Contracts
Just like in written contracts, a verbal contract may be legally binding if certain criteria are met. These criteria include:
- An offer and acceptance.
- All terms discussed must be agreed upon.
- All parties involved must intend to be legally bound
- Consideration, that is, something of value, must be exchanged during the transaction.
Without each of these criteria being met, a verbal contract may not be valid.
Legal requirements for contracts, either written or verbal, can change from country, state or region. For this reason, we advise you to do your own research and consult appropriate legal advice when using CallN software in any way to record a verbal contract.
COMPLIANCE IN AUSTRALIA
A business or organisation using call recording technology in Australia must tell you at the beginning of the conversation that the conversation will be recorded so the person has the choice to either:
- End the call, or
- Ask the other party engaged in call recording to stop the call recording or to be transferred to another line where monitoring or recording does not take place (if this is available).
COMPLIANCE IN USA
Call recording is generally legal at federal level but there are differences from state to state. Federal law allows call recording as long as one party to the conversation gives consent (eg. if your sales team and customer support representatives are aware their conversations are being recorded then there is no obligation to make the caller or customer aware that they are being recorded).
At the State level, there are currently twelve states that have two-party consent laws (ie. all parties to a conversation must be made aware the call is being recorded).
The FCC identifies the following ways to notify parties the call is being recorded:
- A verbal notification before the recording is made
- Written or verbal consent of all parties
- An audible beep repeated at regular intervals during the call
Of these, ‘a verbal notification before the recording is made’ is chosen by most customers as the easiest solution to implement and manage.
HOW TO INFORM YOUR CALLERS
Generally there are three ways to comply with this:
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ADD AN RVA (RECORDED VOICE ANNOUNCEMENT) AUDIO MESSAGE TO YOUR PBX PHONE SYSTEM QUEUE. SOMETHING LIKE “PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS CALL MAY BE RECORDED FOR QUALITY OR TRAINING PURPOSES. IF YOU DO NOT WISH THIS CALL TO BE RECORDED, THEN PLEASE INFORM OUR AGENT.”
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The CallN service is completely passive and cannot play the message for you. This feature can be configured in most PABX systems. Please talk to your PABX supplier if you are not sure how to do this.
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UPDATE YOUR AGENT SCRIPTS TO INFORM THE CALLER THAT THE CALL IS BEING RECORDED.
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Something like “Welcome to <Our Company>, please be aware that this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes. How can I help you today?”
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ENABLE A RECORDING BEEP TONE NOTIFICATION. THIS IS A FEATURE OF YOUR PABX SYSTEM. PLEASE TALK TO YOUR PABX SUPPLIER ABOUT CONFIGURING THIS SERVICE.
There are specific requirements for a recording beep tone specifying frequency and duration. The beep tone must be within 1260-1540 Hertz and must last 0.17 to 0.25 seconds. It must be repeated every 12 to 15 seconds while the call is being recorded and audible to all parties being recorded.
HOW TO INFORM YOUR EMPLOYEES
You must also let your employees know that their calls are being recorded and gain their consent.
One common way for an Employer to gain consent from an employee is through an Employee Agreement that specifically states that the employee understands and consents that all calls made from or to company telephony devices may be recorded. This is typically a signed agreement.
SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO CALLERS
CallN provides the following sample announcements for CallN Trial Customers to use in their PABX for the duration of their trial, or for CallN Customers to use for the duration of their paid service, to help get you up and running as quickly as possible.
These announcements say “Please be aware that this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes. If you do not wish this call to be recorded then please inform our agent.”
If you would like a copy of any of the recorded voices please send us a request through the Contact page.
