How often have you heard a prerecorded voice on the other end of the telephone tell you that "this call may be recorded for training purposes"? Or, that it "may be recorded for quality assurance"? Today it seems like this warning precedes any telephone conversation with banks, utility companies, telephone companies, cable companies, credit card companies, technical support… Maybe your own office has the same automated preamble.

But is it necessary?

With the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), people on both ends of the telephone line need to be aware of possible privacy issues in recording phone calls. There are many companies who record telephone conversations with their clients and there are just as many good reasons for them to do so. While training purposes and quality assurance stand out as good reasons to record telephone conversations, there are other beneficial uses including checking for factual accuracy, obtaining a lot of relevant information at once and to ensure a high standard of customer service.

Under PIPEDA legislation, any telephone calls that are recorded must meet certain requirements, as follows:

•  Organizations should only record calls for specified purposes;
•  Those purposes must meet the reasonable person test;
•  Organizations must make a reasonable effort to ensure that the individual is advised of the purposes for which the information will be used;
•  The individual must consent;
•  The information collected should only be used for the specified purposes; and
•  The tapes should be subject to the other provisions of the Act with respect to matters such as safeguards, access, retention and disposal.

Essentially, the individual must be informed of the taping and the purposes for it. As well, they must consent to being recorded, except in those limited cases where consent is not required. Otherwise, the tape recording of customer telephone calls is unauthorized collection of personal information.

According to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, there are three steps that must be taken when an organization records telephone conversations, specifically:

1. The individual should be informed that the conversation is being recorded at the beginning of the call. This can be done by an automated recording or by the customer service representative.
2. The individual should be informed of the purpose. The organization must be clear about the purposes; an organization should not state that it is recording the conversation for quality assurance purposes if, in fact, the recording might be used for other purposes. If the individual proceeds, knowing the conversation is being recorded and the purpose of the recording, consent is implied.
3. The organization should offer alternatives if the caller objects. The alternatives might involve not taping the call, visiting an office in person, writing a letter or conducting the transaction over the Internet.

So what's the big deal?

There are many privacy issues raised by recording a telephone call. While a customer service representative may not have to write down all of the details of the conversation, taping the call can result in considerably different outcomes than merely having an unrecorded conversation. Consider the following:

• A recorded conversation will capture incidental information that the service representative might not note - information that may not be related to the call but could be used by the organization for other purposes.
• A taped conversation will capture the caller's tone of voice which could in turn be used for other purposes such as a legal proceeding.
• Having a phone conversation on record can be used to infer information about the caller, such as ethnic origin and age that is not relevant to the purpose of the call.

If your organization is in the practice of recording telephone conversations, you should carefully review PIPEDA legislation to ensure that you are not breaching its terms. Recorded telephone calls can be great tools, providing that they are recorded with privacy for all in mind.