Notes from the Watertower

Can I record my calls?

Something that’s asked frequently is the legality of call-recording….

Well, the good news (?) is that in the UK it’s perfectly legal to record your own telephone calls, and you don’t even need to tell the other end that you’re making a recording. As long as one party of the call is aware that the call is being recorded (and that can be you!), then there isn’t an issue.

If you want to publish the recording, then you may have issues, however a written (or typed!) transcription is normally perfectly usable - E.g. in a court of law, and in that instance you can always back it up with a copy of the recording if you are challenged.

So feel free to record your calls! There are numerous devices available for traditional analogue phones, and most VoIP systems have the facility to record if required too.

But beware - now when you call someone, you should always be under the assumption that the call is being recorded. Every financial institution does it, as do all the utility companies. “Calls may be recorded for training purposes” they’ll tell you - and while this may well be true (it generally is when talking to “sales” people as their supervisors will want to check up on them and give them praise or a bolocking, depending on their success rate!), it’s really done for their protection, so they can sue the pants off you if you get abusive to them or claim you lied to them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Telecoms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.