What Is Call Recording Compliance?

Call recording is a common practice for businesses, especially in areas like call centers, technical support, and sales. By recording and analyzing phone calls, these teams can record valuable customer data, enhance customer service, resolve disputes more effectively, and more.

However, it’s vital to ensure that all recordings comply with the local laws of each party involved, since missteps can lead to significant legal and financial penalties. Compliance can be a real challenge, though, since laws governing call recording vary by country and, in some cases, by state or region.

This article provides an overview of key compliance considerations for call recording, including legal requirements, country-specific regulations, and essential best practices.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or an exhaustive summary of call recording regulations. It provides background information to help you understand call recording laws and their potential relevance to your organization. Consult a qualified attorney or legal expert if you need assistance in interpreting this information or ensuring compliance.

Call Recording Compliance: Understanding Consent

Before we can dive into call recording laws, it’s important to understand a core legal concept: consent. One aspect of consent concerns how many call participants must consent to a call being recorded:

• One-party consent — In jurisdictions with one-party consent laws, only one person on the call needs to be aware of and consent to the recording. This means that if you are a participant in a conversation, you can record it without informing the other party.
• All-party consent (often misleadingly called two-party consent) — In jurisdictions with all-party consent laws, every participant in a call must explicitly agree to call recording before it begins.

The other key element of consent is how it is expressed. Consent can be either explicit or implicit:

• Explicit consent — You ask for permission to record the call and receive clear verbal or written agreement from each participant.
• Implicit consent — You inform callers that the call will be recorded; if they continue on the line, their consent is implied.

Failure to obtain consent as required by applicable requirements can be grounds for lawsuits and regulatory penalties.

Call Recording Laws in the United States

Federal Laws

In the U.S., federal law dictates one-party consent. However, you are not permitted to record a conversation without actively participating in it; that is considered illegal eavesdropping or wiretapping under to the Federal Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511).

In addition, all businesses recording customer calls must comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines by ensuring clear notification and consent.

State Laws

Individual state laws differ regarding consent requirements for call recording. Most states allow call recording as long as one participant consents. However, the following states require consent from all participants before recording: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.

In addition, some states impose further restrictions on call recording. Examples include:

• Notification of call recording: In California and Pennsylvania, not only must all parties consent to the recording, but they must also be explicitly notified at the beginning of the call that recording is taking place.
• Recording device restrictions: Florida mandates that recording equipment is not hidden from call participants.
• Disclosure for marketing calls: Nevada and Massachusetts require businesses to disclose when calls are being recorded for marketing or sales purposes.

Call Recording Laws in Canada

In Canada, the legality of call recording is governed primarily by the Criminal Code of Canada and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

In general, one-party consent is required for call recording. However, PIPEDA imposes stricter requirements when personal information is involved: If the call is being recorded for commercial purposes (such as customer service, marketing, or sales), PIPEDA requires that the party recording the call must notify the other party and obtain their informed consent. This is typically done by informing the person at the beginning of the call that it is being recorded.

Individual provinces may have regulations that impose additional mandates, such as stricter consent requirements for commercial call recordings.

To learn more about Canada’s approach to call recording, refer to the Privacy Commissioner's Guidelines for Recording Customer Calls.

Call Recording Laws in the European Union

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict requirements for call recording, including:

• Gaining explicit, informed, and unambiguous consent from all participants before recording a call.
• Recording calls only when necessary for a specific business purpose, such as fraud prevention or compliance with legal or contractual obligations.
• Balancing a legitimate business interest in recording against the individual's privacy rights. 
• Providing individuals with access to their data upon request.
• Ensuring secure storage and handling of call recordings.
• Never retain recordings longer than necessary for the specified purpose.

Non-compliance can potentially lead to steep fines — up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue.

Best Practices to Ensure Call Recording Compliance

Organizations today often have remote teams and customers in many parts of the world, so it can be challenging to ensure you meet all applicable call recording requirements. Indeed, courts have issued conflicting rulings about matters such as which state’s laws apply when parties from multiple states are on a call.

Rather than trying to navigate specific national and local regulations, a more practical approach is for organizations to establish a call recording policy for all inbound and outbound calls that enforces robust standards. Below are some best practices that can help ensure that your policy achieves call recording compliance.

Inform Call Participants and Get Their Consent

Before recording always notify all call participants that the call will be recorded and get their consent. The clearest way to do this is to have your representative verbally notify other participants at the beginning of the call and ask for their explicit consent to record. However, this manual approach is simply not scalable for call centers, customer support, and sales teams who manage thousands of calls daily.

Accordingly, many businesses use pre-recorded call greetings to automate verbal notifications and gain implicit consent. For example, callers might be greeted with a message like this: “This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes. By continuing, you consent to the recording.” Note that if you use recorded greetings, it’s important to periodically test your phone system to ensure they play correctly when callers dial in.

With the DialLink cloud-based phone system, it’s easy to create custom greetings like this for both inbound and outbound calls. In fact, DialLink’s AI-powered text-to-speech technology even enables you to create notifications in multiple languages — without the hassle and cost of hiring professional voice artists.

Manage and Store Recordings Securely

To ensure call recording compliance, it is also essential to protect recorded data from unauthorized access and enforce data lifecycle controls. A robust approach should include the following measures:

• Use encryption to safeguard recordings both in transit and at rest.
• Strictly limit who can retrieve and manage the files.
• Store recordings only for as long as permitted.
• When data is no longer needed, delete it securely.

With DialLink, your call recordings are kept in encrypted storage to ensure data security. Additionally, you can manage access to the data using role-based access control (RBAC), which makes it easier to ensure that only appropriate personnel can access sensitive recordings.

Develop a Call Recording Policy and Train Employees to Follow It

Another vital step in ensuring call recording compliance is to create an explicit and consistent set of guidelines detailing when and how calls should be recorded. It should outline legitimate purposes for recording calls, as well as specify who can access recordings, how long they will be stored, and the process for ensuring they are properly deleted.

Make the policy easily accessible for all employees and regularly train everyone to reinforce best practices and educate them about the serious consequences of illegal call recordings.

Monitor Call Recordings to Ensure Compliance

Regularly reviewing call recording is essential to ensuring that all employees are following established policies. For example, if customer service representatives are required to obtain verbal consent before recording, managers should ensure compliance by conducting quality checks.

However, verifying compliance by checking recordings can be challenging — after all, consent must be granted before the rep is permitted to press the “Record” button. As a user-friendly VoIP phone system, DialLink enables managers to use the group calling feature to connect to live calls and listen in real time to confirm that consent scripts are properly followed.

Stay Current on Changing Compliance Requirements

Call recording laws change over time, so organizations need to stay updated on relevant legal developments. Be on the lookout for new and revised requirements for recording practices at the regional, national, state, and local levels.

Regularly review and update your call recording policy, especially when entering new markets or adapting to new regulations. Consult legal experts to ensure continued compliance with current regulations.

How DialLink Helps Organizations Achieve Call Recording Compliance

Call recording is an extremely valuable tool for businesses, but it comes with serious legal responsibilities. To minimize legal risks and maintain customer trust, organizations must understand and adhere to applicable laws, industry regulations, and best practices. By implementing robust compliance measures, businesses can ensure they use call recordings both legally and ethically.

The DialLink business phone system makes it easier for you to implement many of the core best practices recommended for call recording compliance. With capabilities like custom greetings, group calling, role-based access control, and encrypted storage, you can responsibly take advantage of the many business benefits of call recording.