Companies often monitor or record conversations between their employees and customers for training or quality control purposes. You’ve probably heard messages to this effect yourself. These announcements are meant to satisfy laws that prohibit monitoring or recording unless both parties to the call consent. Despite such precautions, however, companies sometimes run afoul of these laws and find themselves facing class action lawsuits alleging calls were recorded without the required notice.
States with “two-party consent” include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Washington and the District of Columbia. A company may be subject to these laws even if it is located in a different state. The California Supreme Court, for example, ruled in 2006 that if a caller in a one-party state records a conversation with someone in California, that out-of-state caller is subject to California law and must have consent from all callers. Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc.
