Call Recording - Guidelines
Is it legal to record phone calls in the United Kingdom
Should a business obtain consent before recording a call?
What is GDPR and how does it relate to call recording?
Is it legal to record phone calls in the United Kingdom?
Yes, it is. Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 it is completely legal to record a phone call without telling someone. However, there is a caveat when it comes to sharing that call recording. Its totally fine to record a phone call and use it for personal use. If you share the recording to a third party, without having first obtained the caller's consent, you'll be breaking the law.
Furthermore the rules for a business are different. When you make a call from a business, if there is a need to share the call with a third party, ensure that you obtain the caller's consent before recording. The general guidance we would give is that a bsuiness should put in place a voice message at the beginning of the call that stating that every call is recorded, and can be used within the business.
Should a business obtain consent before recording a call?
The short answer is yes. If you are operating a business, whist recording a phone call isnt against the law, it definitely advisable to ask for consent in advance. This gives the business additional right to the call, that would otherwise be unavailable.
What is GDPR and how does it relate to call recording?
Created by the european union in 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives more laws and rights to individual's and how their assocuated data is used, processed and stored by businesses. The key focus is the protection of individuals whose data is collected by companies and organisations.
GDPR came into effect in 2016, and has strict rules that govern how businesses recording their customers. GDPR states that businesses must get consent to record calls and explain why the recording will be taking place.
A business is not able to use a call recording outside the scope of its declared usage. GDPR also states that any call recordings older than twelve months should be considered redundant and at this point deleted. Hoever there are legitimate reasons to have a call recording for longer than this period. If your business is regulated and the regulator specifies that call recording is necessary, they will also stipulate the minimum timeframe that a recording should be kept for, which could be longer than the twelve months associated to GDPR.