Legality vs ethics

At Retell we understand the distinction between ethics and legality when recording calls. In a normal business situation, calls recorded for training or customer service can be verified, since either you or an associate was party to the call.

We believe there’s no ethical difference between conducting a telephone conversation then telling a colleague about it, and having the conversation and allowing an associate to listen to its recording. The equivalent is telling a colleague about a letter you’ve received, or letting them actually read it; the difference between a third party reading a letter or listening to a recording, or being told about either, is that by reading or listening to the original they know, word for word, what was said.

However, it would be unethical for yet another party – a competitor, say – to ‘bug’ your offices or telephone lines and so learn your commercial secrets. (Note in this case the “competitor” was not party to the original telephone call, nor did they notify you that the call was being recorded).

UK law rightly makes illegal such third-party interception, where neither party to the call knows the call is being recorded (except by the police to enforce law).