Call Recording

We understand how important recording calls  can be to assist businesses of all size with dispute resolution, confirming an order, monitoring quality and training to improving performance.

We also understand that that you may have questions about compliance and regulations so we are here to help, guide and find you the very best call recording solution for you and your business.

Is It Legal To Record Calls?

Yes, it is legal to record phone calls provided that you do not breach the Data Protection Act and the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice)(Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000, as well as a number of other regulations.

Can A Company Record Conversations That They Have With The Customer Without Telling Them?

According to the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice)(Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000, call recordings can be done for the purpose of:

“Monitoring communications made to a confidential voice-telephony counselling or support service which is free of charge (other than the cost, if any, of making a telephone call) and operated in such a way that users may remain anonymous if they so choose.”  Section 3 – (1c)

Interception Of Communications Regulations 2000

This law can protect anonymous recordings in contact centres, but you can also record phone calls for the purpose of doing the following:

  • Establishing facts and evidence for business transactions
  • Ensuring compliance with regulatory or self-regulatory practices
  • Ascertaining and demonstrating that standards are being met
  • Defending national security
  • Preventing or detecting crime
  • Investigating or detecting the unauthorised use of that or any other telecommunication system
  • Safeguarding the effective operation of the telecommunications system

According to the ICO’s Employment Practices Data Protection Code staff should be made aware that their calls are being recorded.

A key requirement is that organisations inform their callers that recording may be taking place. Some document this in their online, marketing and customer correspondence literature, while others include a message in their IVR dialogues. “Calls may be recorded for security and training purposes”.

How Long Can The Company Hold Customer Information For?

There is no limit for how long companies keep recorded phone calls, although in some industries there is a minimum amount of time that recordings must be kept for.

FCA Compliance

The FCA dictates that any business involved in the transaction of equities, bonds, commodities and derivative markets is required to not only record voice conversations but also to keep them for a minimum period of 6 months. Our partners offer FCA call recording applications that have been designed in collaboration with financial services industry experts to meet the requirements of an FCA regulated business.

A Customer Can Request Access To The Call Recordings That The Company Makes?

The customer can ask for a copy of a recorded phone call. A request can be made for a copy of the recording under data protection legislation and is known as a “subject access request”.

Under the Data Protection Act, you can make a subject access request from “data controllers”, which includes contact centres, for both paper and computer records, as well as for any related information.

How To Ensure Your Contact Centre Is Compliant.

Callers MUST be made aware that their calls are, or may be, recorded, for either training purposes, quality control or simply their and your staff’s protection.

Secure storage for all archived calls, and either a soundproofed audit room or headphones when carrying out call audit to ensure that caller details or the nature of their call can’t be overheard by people who don’t particularly need to hear them and if you plan to listen into the call live, callers would also need to be made aware of this too. Callers also have the right

Every contact centre that plans to record needs to ask itself why it is going to do so, how long will the recordings need to be kept to fulfil this purpose, who will have access to the recordings and for what specific reasons? Once these initial questions have been answered the following safeguards should be considered.

Decide and record the intended purpose(s) for which the recordings will be used.

Ensure the recordings are protected from misuse. This is a requirement of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

Ensure that the organisation is registered with the Information Commissioner, if necessary https://ico.org.uk/).

Ensure that users of recorded lines (agents and callers) are informed that they may be recorded for the intended purpose.

Delete recordings when they are no longer required to fulfil the intended purpose. For example, the DPA requires that personal data should only be kept long enough to fulfil the purpose for which it is held. Therefore, if recordings are only intended to support quality initiatives that involve weekly training sessions, then it would probably be considered unreasonable to retain such recordings for a year.

It is recommended that businesses provide an unrecorded telephone line for contact centre staff to ensure the right to privacy is respected and advise employees how you plan to use call recording and how it can benefit and protect them in the workplace.