Recording telephone calls

[Mal]

A question to all...

Does anyone know what the law states about people recording their telephone conversations?

I know that you have to tell them your doing it, but do you have to get the other person's permission or is it just the that you have to tell them?

Also, would it have to be at the start of the call for it to be of any use?

Thanks

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Mal

A question to all...

Does anyone know what the law states about people recording their telephone conversations?

I know that you have to tell them your doing it, but do you have to get the other person's permission or is it just the that you have to tell them?

Also, would it have to be at the start of the call for it to be of any use?

Thanks

in what context are you meaning , a company recording / stroke monitoring or what ???????????

[Mal]

Anything. Company recording incoming calls or vice-versa.

It's just that at work today, a normal incoming telephone call, nothing unusual about (i.e nasty) and the person said I've recorded this call and put the phone down.

My understanding was that you have to tell whoever beforehand, not after the call had ended. So if there was any dispute later on in a court, it couldn't be used.

We don't record the calls at work so I don't know what the procedure is. It's was just that call that got me thinking.

[SMHarman]

From a corporate perspective you have to inform the caller, this is usually in a recorded preamble, it can just be in the terms and conditions of say the credit card though.

From a personal perspective, the DPA is less critical, but you can record, it is polite to advise first, but not law. They could not then use the conversation in a public manner without your permission, but could use it as a record of what they were told if a later dispute were to arise (i.e that call out will be free).

[Mal]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

From a corporate perspective you have to inform the caller, this is usually in a recorded preamble, it can just be in the terms and conditions of say the credit card though.

From a personal perspective, the DPA is less critical, but you can record, it is polite to advise first, but not law. They could not then use the conversation in a public manner without your permission, but could use it as a record of what they were told if a later dispute were to arise (i.e that call out will be free).

Thank you.

Some useful information on recording phone conversations:

From http://www.callcorder.com/phone-recording-law-uk.htm

"The relevant law, RIPA, does not prohibit individuals from recording their own communications provided that the recording is for their own use. Recording or monitoring are only prohibited where some of the contents of the communication - which can be a phone conversation or an e-mail - are made available to a third party, i.e. someone who was neither the caller or sender nor the intended recipient of the original communication.

According to Oftel, you do not have to let people know that you intend to record their telephone conversations, provided you are not intending to make the contents of the communication available to a third party. If you are you will need the consent of the person you are recording."

This is more or less the same over all the sources I've just googled for.

However http://www.yourrights.org.uk/your-ri...ecording.shtml says:

"the combination of an evolving doctrine of breach of confidence and the possibility of a separate tort of privacy developed by the courts in the light of the incorporation of Article 8 into UK law, may well mean that a person can be stopped from revealing what was said and recorded in such a situation if it was apparent that the conversation was confidential and there is no public interest in such disclosure or the invasion of the person's privacy is otherwise unjustified."

This appears to allow you to use the conversation if it involved a matter of legal dispute, eg someone says something on the phone which they later deny, you could then AIUI (but I'm not a lawyer) use the recorded conversation as evidence of what they said.