Best Practices for Recording of Customer Telephone Calls

Justification for Tape Recording

Taping telephone calls involves the collection of personal information. Therefore, the practice should meet fair information practices. In the case of organizations subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents (PIPED) Act, this form of collection must comply with the legislation:

• 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.

The bottom line is that conversations should not be taped unless it is "for purposes that a reasonable person would consider are appropriate in the circumstances." The individual must be informed of the taping and the purposes for it and the individual has to consent, except in those limited cases where consent is not required. Otherwise, the tape recording of customer telephone calls is unauthorized collection of personal information.

Taping Procedures

In order to comply with the PIPED Act, organizations should take the following steps when recording conversations:

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. This could be done in a variety of ways - verbally, by pressing a number on the keypad (in the case of automated messages) or with clear messages on monthly statements. (For example: If you have any questions about your bill please call 1-800-XXX-XXXX. Please note your call will be recorded for...) 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 a retail outlet; writing a letter; or, conducting the transaction over the Internet.

Other Privacy Implications

The recording of customer calls by organizations raises several other privacy issues. Although a customer service representative could attempt to write down the details of a conversation, a recording is qualitatively different for a number of reasons:

• It will capture incidental information that the service representative might not note - information that may not be germane to the call but could be used by the organization for other purposes;
• It will capture the caller's tone of voice, that could also be used for other purposes such as a legal proceeding; and
• It can be used to infer information about the caller, for example ethnic origin and age that is not relevant to the purpose of the call.