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From: forrette@cory.berkeley.edu (Steve Forrette)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Recording Phone Calls
Message-ID: <16076@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 91 06:18:13 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 39, Message 7 of 9

In article <72174@bu.edu.bu.edu> you write:

>It used to be, when answering machines were first becoming popular,
>that the conversation recording feature always put out a tone every
>few seconds. Not anymore, now many of them seem to provide silent
>recording. Have the laws or just ethics changed?

>Is recording of telephone conversations legal, or is it required to
>notify all participants involved before-hand? I would assume recording
>for 'personal use' is legal, just as it is legal to record TV shows
>and copy software. But that's just a hunch, anybody know the real
>answer or how to find out??

Here's what the Pacific Bell White Pages have to say about the
subject:

"Federal and State tariffs state that for a telephone conversation to
be recorded, one of the following conditions must be met:

"1.  All parties being recorded must give their prior consent to being 
recorded; or,

"2.  All parties being recorded must hear a 'beep' tone approximately every
15 seconds.

"Exemptions to these provisions apply to commercial broadcasting
purposes when the person being recorded has been informed."

The two rules seem very common-sense to me.  I have on several
occasions recorded conversations between my and merchants when there
has been a dispute or I expect there to be one.  In particular, calls
to the Business Office for local service changes to my phones get
recorded.  Since my service orders tend to be more complicated than
most that the Residence office deals with, they have the tendency to
be messed up.  This way, I can establish without question just who's
mistake it was.

By the way, I use my Panasonic KT-T1427 answering machine to record.
It generates the fifteen second tone automatically.  A couple of times
I've had people ask me "what kind of phone are you calling from?"
When I mention that the tone indicates that the call is being
recorded, the person on the other end without exception has been
surprised and didn't know what the tone meant.  I tell them that it is
being done for my protection so that I can establish without question
exactly what I have requested.  For the people that don't say
anything, I don't know if they are aware of what it means, or just
ignore it.

Once I had a rep deny permission after I explained the purpose of the
tone.  I then turned off the recorder.  This was about ten minutes
into the conversation, so I asked her why she didn't speak up at the
beginning.  She said that she had "no way of knowing what the tone was
for."  I didn't go into it further, but are there really that many
people that don't know what a tone at regular intervals during a
telephone calls means?  I explained that I had met my obligation under
the tariff to provide notice, but seemed to be beside the point.

Note that mostly, it is not worth my while to record.  Only when a
mistake in the order, such as a change in long distance carriers, will
cost me a lot in terms of money or hassle to correct do I find it
worth the effoct.


Steve Forrette, forrette@cpry.berkeley.edu