When I’m recording (usually using the Rev app on iPhone if its not particularly sensitive or legally confidential information) I always start the human conversation with something like “hey so this call is recorded right? Thats what the message told me when I picked up. Just double-checking that we should consider this call to be recorded?”

I figure that it is completely legally unnecessary but it guarantees there’s an understanding between all human participants to expect a recording, which brings it in line with my own personality morality when conversing with an “innocent / relatively powerless human” (my morality exceeds the ethical and legal framework we operate in).

You don't have to tell them. You're dealing with the company, not the individual employee. If the company is recording the call, so can you.

Many states in the US do not allow calls to be recorded unless all parties on the call consent to being recorded. There is no distinction (that I am aware of) between companies and natural persons in those laws. In those states, you can _technically_ record a call without consent, but my guess is that if you try to use it as evidence, you open yourself up to being prosecuted for wire fraud or somesuch.

There are more "one-party consent" states than two-. Notably for HN's crowd California requires all parties be aware: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_call_recording_laws#One...

I am in NY, a one-party state, so I record most important calls for use later.

I can't find an app that lets me record both sides of the conversation on Android. Only my side. When I looked into, it seems that Google has disabled that part of the API that apps cannot record both sides of a conversation.

Does anyone know of a reliable way to record conversations?

I got around this by paying for a VoIP line and running 3cx to utilize it, 3cx can record calls. I've never actually done it - not even to test - because right around the time i got it set up covid hit and the people i used to spend 1-2 hours a day talking to on the phone about tech and other interesting things stopped having to drive to work so my phone usage is now down to maybe 4 hours a month on private calls that no one else would be interested in.

Technically i've been paying for a voip line for 20 years, and shoehorning it into 3cx was mostly to allow my young kid to be able to call his aunt or someone who isn't on our PBX (grandma and grandpa and his siblings are, already).

believe me i was really annoyed when android stopped being able to reliably record calls. Another alternative that i did actually use is a 3 channel breakout connector on my cellphone, a DAC/ADC, PC microphone and headphones. You could tell the OS to "monitor" the microphone, and record mix (remember those days?). Or now-a-days you'd have to use VAC(virtual audio cable) or something to manage the routing. Speaker out goes to mic in on phone, and vice versa, hit record on your PC, and both the remote side and your side will be recorded. I never got too deep into this because it's a huge hassle unless you have a phone just for this; but multi-channel recordings would let you have synchronous audio, for, say, correct transcriptions.

Can't you just put it on speaker?

> You don't have to tell them. You're dealing with the company, not the individual employee. If the company is recording the call, so can you.

The whole point of "this call may be recorded" is to establish consent between both parties. In two-party consent states (caller or recipient), you still have to establish consent to record.

If you're calling from a 1-party consent state to a 1-party consent state, you don't have to tell them, although I don't know how that works legally with call center routing.

If they’ve already told you that they’re recording, hasn’t consent already been established? You don’t need to ask again. It’s not like they’ve gotten consent for themselves to record, but not you.

My understanding is that intent needs to be established for any recording. If you establish consent and the second party records without consent I'm not sure where that stands but the spirit of the law seems to suggest every party must consent to every recording.

"This call may be recorded..."

They don't specify that it may not be you that records it. They are consenting.

> They don't specify that it may not be you that records it. They are consenting.

My - not a lawyer - understanding of consent laws is they're tied somewhat to privacy expectation laws.

If I tell you I am recording you, your expectation of privacy is lessened. But mine isn't, necessarily, because I control the recording and its potential dissemination.

They aren't telling you that they are recording. The exact phrasing is normally, "This call may be recorded", not "X Corp may be recording this call"

The former can be interpreted as explicit consent to record the call, after all they provided the consent, but you actually haven't.

> They aren't telling you that they are recording

Right but that's less important than telling the other party that anyone might be recorded. Because, again, spirit of the law, it loosens expectations of privacy.

Given there are only two parties on the call, only one needs their consent solicited anyway.

I’ve worked for those call centres and they don’t tell employees to hang up if it’s being recorded by the customer, because the company is already recording everything and trains their staff to operate as such.

“Cool you are recording too, IT will be happy we have an offsite backup” That’s been recorded!