Recording Conversations Without Adequate Consent Violates Law

Secretly recording a telephone conversation without the consent of all parties participating in the conversation, such as between an employee and supervisor, violates Connecticut civil law. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-570d makes it unlawful for anyone to record a phone conversation without the consent of all parties to the communication. Such consent must be obtained in advance, in writing, or verbally at the start of the recording, or through automatic tone warnings throughout the conversation.

While there are several exceptions to the two-party consent rule most do not apply to the workplace. One exception that may, however, permits recipients to record calls that convey threats of extortion, bodily harm or other unlawful requests or demands, without the consent of the caller.

Connecticut’s civil law is more restrictive than either Federal or state criminal law, which both permit the recording of a phone conversation with the consent of a single party. Any person aggrieved by a violation of the state civil law may recover damages, costs and attorneys’ fees.

The rules governing the secret recording of a face to face discussion are less restrictive. While there are no civil statutory restrictions, under both federal and state criminal law at least one party engaged in the discussion must consent to the recording. Also, if a third party were to record a discussion between two other people at least one of the participants must consent.

Employers may also have policies that prevent the recording of any discussions. Such a policy would allow the company to take action against the employee for breaching its policy, but the recording could probably still be used in subsequent legal proceedings, provided it was legally obtained.