There is a common misconception about the legality of recording telephone calls. In fact, it is legal to record phone conversations, under the laws of all 50 states and federal law. The legal issue deals with notification and/or consent. Federal law only requires that one party to the call incense to the recording, which means that you can record calls that you are a party to. Many states, however, require both parties to be notified and/or consent to the recording. I have a good deal of experience in this specific area of the law. In practice, these laws are all so poorly written and so vague that most of the time you can't even find out what is legal or illegal until after you have done it. These laws, most of which were passed in the 1960s, desperately need to be updated and clarified. Most of the laws say that you need the other persons "consent." So, technically, when a company tells you that calls "may be recorded," they have not satisfied the requirements and it may well be committing felonies every time they recorded customers call, without first asking the customer's explicit permission to do so.
You'd also be surprised to find out how arrogant many companies are regarding the recording of phone calls. They don't give you a choice about being recorded and you'll find their reaction quite interesting when you tell them that you are also recording the same conversation.
One of the major cell phone companies tried to pull a fast one on me recently and told me that I was lying about an agreement that one of their agents made with me. When I told the woman that I had not only recorded that earlier call but that I was recording the call with her where she was being rude, insulting and flat-out wrong, she freaked out and said that their company had a policy that if a customer told them that the customer was recording the call that the agent was supposed to hang up immediately.
I am now working on legislation in my state that would allow a consumer to record any calls, without notice or consent, when calling any toll-free business number, government office and/or the official customer service numbers of any company doing business with the public.
I'm not talking about a phone call with somebody, gossiping about the neighbors or revealing personal infidelities. I'm talking about consumers rights to preserve the clarity of any conversation that he or she would otherwise be able to disclose in any court proceeding. Candidly, if it's okay for the government, utilities, banks and a whole list of other types of businesses to "protect themselves from the consumer," than the consumer should also be able to record the conversation so that he or she can later prove, with absolute clarity and certainty, what was said in an unofficial commercial conversation.
It's amazing how heavy-handed companies suddenly change their tune when they discover that the consumer also recorded a telephone call that the company recorded. The recorded truth is a great equalizer and can go a long way to protecting the little guy who only asks to be treated with honesty, integrity and reliability.
I can't think of anything more pro-consumer than for the legislatures across the United States to update and modernize consumer protection laws in a manner that gives consumers a feeling of safety that they won't get into trouble by simply archiving the true and complete content of a commercial telephone conversation. I think you'd start to see a lot of companies and a lot of government agencies suddenly start behaving with some basic respect for consumers and citizens who deserve nothing less.
Nothing about this means to suggest that there are legitimate occasions for companies and government offices to benefit from dishonest customers and citizens, but they already have the upper hand. Despite the law, from a practical standpoint, if you want to speak to someone from a bank, a utility, certainly to protect yourself from the venal abuses of rabid collection agencies, you really don't get a choice. If you tell them that you do not want your call recorded, they will tell you that you don't have to call them. If the company says that your only way of not being recorded is not to call them at all, that isn't consent.
So I'd encourage everybody to let software publishers know that we want software for the iPhone that gives us the ability to record telephone calls. Everybody should also write a letter to their state elected representatives and tell them you want these laws fixed. You want to be able to prove how a collection agent threatens you, our cell phone provider lies to you simply to be able to archive the truth, without being afraid of being charged with a crime or sued into oblivion. just imagine all the lawsuits that could be avoided if there was absolute recorded proof of what both sides said. Individuals and/or companies knew that there was proof of something they did right or something they did wrong things would suddenly find themselves resolved very quickly.
We all get the government we deserve. It's up to each of us to make it better.
