Can I Legally Record Phone Calls and Conversations?

This is a question that I get a lot and the answer is not as cut and dried as you may think.

The correct answer is “Yes, go ahead record that phone call and conversation…” and the rest of the sentence is, “as long as you live in a state or province that legally allows you to record the phone call or conversation”. 

Now, the word “legally” should scare you a bit, because you don’t want to do anything illegally, do you?

If you’ve ever called a company and heard the recording where they say “we record this conversation for training and evaluation purposes” before you even speak with someone, it’s because the lawyers told the company that they need to warn people about the recording of the conversation. And this warning is announced whether one-party (one person), or two-party (two-person or all-party) consent to record a phone call is required by law (the company just wants to avoid trouble). 

Be sure you know the laws of consent for recording phone calls and conversations for where you live.

One-party consent to record a phone call or conversation
This means that only one “participant” of the phone call or conversation needs to agree to the recording. If you’re the one recording then you need to be heard in the recording to make it legal, within “one-person consent” laws, the other person(s) don’t need to know the conversation is being recorded.

Two-party consent to record a phone call or conversation
(Sometimes this is called “all-party consent” instead of” two-party”)
Under this law, everyone in the conversation or phone call needs to be informed about the conversation and permit agree to the recording. Generally, a statement needs to be made before the conversation starts.

In America, there are differences between what U.S Federal Law and state law allows for the recording of phone calls and conversations. It boils down to federal law allows one-party consent, with caveats. State law varies by state, some are one-party, some are two-party consent laws. 

Be sure to research the law where you live before you press record. Video recording is not discussed in this article.