Personal use call recordings

This has me a tad unsure, and curious on views...

Someone on the internet said ...

... that it is better to not use a call recording when making a complaint or dispute. Why? Because you can "legally only make the call recording for personal use".

Well, yes, first off, GDPR related, "personal use" is a thing that takes stuff out of  GDPR. But it is also possible to make a call recording as someone registered with the ICO under GDPR and comply with the rules and use for something else. After all, the call centre you are calling does that. But I fully agree, that would be unusual for someone personally making some sort of complaint. So yes, it would be for "personal use".

But then, surely, "personal use" must cover "having a record of what I said and what was said to me", and "personally using that in a court or with an ombudsman" - is that "personal use"? Maybe, maybe not, I really do not know.

But then... I could definitely make "personal use" of a recording to "aid my memory" in making a transcript of the call - nobody else hears the recording, only me. And making a transcript of a call is something I can legitimately do with, or without, a call recording, yes? The fact that "I made this transcript using a call recording to aid my memory so as to ensure it is 100% accurate" has to carry a lot of weight with a court or ombudsman. Indeed, if the other party claimed my transcript is wrong, it starts to be accusations of fraud, and I am sure in such cases a recording could then be used to validate the transcript, surely?

I also seriously doubt a court or ombudsman would ever exclude a call recording anyway. The other party raising legal objections that the recording should not have been made would rather hurt their argument as it is "we only said wrong things because we thought you would not have proof of it". Of course if a court or ombudsman said they won't accept a call recording, you just say "fine, here is the transcript I made, using the call recording to aid my memory" (perhaps even with an oath of its accuracy) - they are going to accept that - so the call recording has been useful.

I also find that simply saying "I'll check the call recording" is a hugely powerful phrase, and you don't even need the recording most of the time!

However, this then got me thinking of the alternatives suggested.

Email - keeping a record of the emails sent and received. I 100% agree this better, but not based on "not being able to use a call recording". I can take my time composing an email (I fail to do that some times, sadly). I can avoid losing my cool, etc. But then so can the other party (and they may have more training and practice).

My thought here is: how exactly is a record of an email exchange any different, legally, from a record of a spoken exchange. Why would one be "legal" and one not? Surely they hold the same "personal information" (if any). Does GDPR differentiate between them? Or is this not GDPR but something else? Surely the record of emails is just as much only allowed for "personal use"?

And how is that different than taking a screenshot of an "on-line chat" (another suggested idea). This even has the fact that the other party cannot simply assume that of course you have a copy (like email), as you had to actively make a copy, without asking.

And really, how is this different from old school written letters?

I am curious to know - where is the line drawn, why, and by what law?

Tech: Managing calls

I have just issued a new alpha release of FireBrick, by popular demand, allowing some call filtering based on CLI. Basically you can do a lot more than simple anonymous call reject now. Whilst most people know the FireBrick as a firewall/router it is also a SIP VoIP PABX (phone system).

But one of the things that this highlights is the increasing need to "do something" with calls you receive. Systems like the FireBrick allow you to do all sorts on your own network, making your own "phone system" for VoIP phones. If you look at systems like asterisk the level of controls you have are quite incredible - essentially a programming language for how calls are handled and even allowing recoded messages and DTMF menus and so on.

On a private system you also have means to log things and even manage call recordings yourself.

This is all great for a "desk phone" but what about your mobile?

This is where some of the stuff we sell comes in - and we have customers doing some clever stuff. Recently we have managed to make a few improvements, but basically we have means to have a normal 07 UK mobile number, and a mobile SIM, and put your own phone system (whether FireBrick, or asterisk, or anything else) in the middle.

This means you can have a mobile phone with a SIM card, and do things like log, or filter, or record calls, and texts, either way. The SIP2SIM service looks like a VoIP handset has registered and connected to your phone system, but is in fact a normal Mobile telephone service (i.e. no special app on the phone). This means you can even make internal calls on your phone system from your mobile. (The mobile leg does have call costs even for these).

The texts can be passed by email or using http/https on your own server where you can do things with them. The latest improvements mean much better handling of unicode characters as well. You can also handle the texts from the mobile. You could just join the dots to make texts or calls, in and out, like a normal mobile, or you could do much more with your own scripts on the way.

We have people doing things like opening doors using calls, and clever tricks with texts.

Obviously we also have services that simply link calls, or texts, or both, in and out between an 07 mobile number and the SIP2SIM service without needing your own phone system. We have options like call recording and logging. But we are happy for you to make your own systems, as simple or as complex, as you wish in the middle.

Of course this also allows mobile on a normal landline style number, but texting to such numbers remains a challenge in the UK, and a lot of companies and web sites will refuse to even try texting what they think is a landline number. So using a normal 07 mobile number does the trick nicely.

We can even port in an 07 mobile number to the service, and if you don't like it, port back out again. No minimum term on the SIP2SIM or VoIP services.

So if you are techie, but want a lot more control of your mobile phone service, it is worth taking a look.

One little trick I do a lot is steal a call, transferring it between my mobile and my desk phone mid call, without the other party even realising I have done it. E.g. answer on mobile, walk to desk, put on headset, switch call to desk phone and work on computer while on the call. All seamless.