According to various reports from consumers, Czech Airlines may be in violation of California law on call recording. The State of California is one of eleven states that currently identify themselves as two-party consent states.

This identification has nothing to do with politics but refers to the necessity under state law for both the caller and party called to give permission prior to having the interaction recorded.

According to ExecVision, California law on call recording is based upon California Penal Code 632. The bill is otherwise referred to the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and outlines laws regarding eavesdropping.

In this case, eavesdropping doesn’t refer to casually overhearing an in-person conversation or even deliberately trying to do so with the naked ear. CIPA is specifically concerned with the use of extraordinary technological means to overhear or eavesdrop on conversations that the people involved had a reasonable expectation of being private.

California law on call recording follows from these concerns. In this state, whether on a landline or on a mobile cellular phone, all participants on a phone call must give their permission prior to the phone call being recorded.

Again, not all two-party consent states split hairs with respect to mobile devices. This detailed element makes California law on call recording relatively unique among the eleven two-party consent states.

California law regarding call privacy applies to calls that are inbound to California residents such as sales calls or outbound calls from them which generally apply to business customer service lines.

The most common way in which California law on call recording is violated is by companies that fail to have either have a pre-recorded warning about the intent to record on their customer service voice menu or fail to have their customer service representatives (CSRs) trained to ask permission to record transactions. Czech Airlines is suspected of being one of those businesses that fail on one or both of those standards.

Pre-Recordings that Can Satisfy the Law

We have all become accustomed to hearing the message when calling a customer service support line: “This phone call may be recorded for quality control or training purposes.” Whether or not the reasons are entirely true, providing this warning offers the caller an out on which they can then act by terminating contact if they do not wish the conversation to be recorded.

If the caller continues to hold and makes contact with a CSR, they have given their implied consent to have the conversation recorded and the business has satisfied California law on call recording or CIPA.

Businesses Under Investigation

In addition to Czech Airlines, there are several businesses that consumers have reported to be lacking in compliance. Among them are:

• Dermalogica
• Swarovski
• Drs. Foster & Smith
• Mears Transportation Group
• Romano’s Macaroni Grill
• Southwest Rapid Rewards (800-445-5764 only)
• United Airlines Pet Safe (800-575-3335 only)
• Cannondale Bicycle Corporation