If you take part in the call, you may record it. Recording a conversation you are not part of is wiretapping and is a criminal offence. Use recordings for work and you are processing personal data, which brings in the GDPR: a proper legal basis, transparency towards your client, and no keeping things longer than needed.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you are unsure about your own situation, put it to someone with legal expertise.
The main rule: if you are in the call, you may record it
In the Netherlands you may record a phone call as long as you are a participant in it. This follows from article 139c of the Dutch Criminal Code, which makes it an offence to record telecommunications not intended for you. A call you are having yourself is intended for you. The same article also carves out an exception for recording by, or on the instruction of, the holder of the connection.
Conversations around a table fall under a different article with the same thrust. Article 139a prohibits recording a conversation in a home or enclosed space by someone who is not a participant and is not acting on an instruction from a participant. Take part yourself and you fall outside it.
Article 139c allows recording by the holder of the connection "except in cases of manifest abuse". Capturing a call so you know what was agreed is one thing. Recording it to get someone into trouble later is another, and that stays punishable.
So a call with your energy supplier, your builder or your client is yours to capture for your own use. Plenty of people do exactly that so they can read back what was agreed, which is where verbal promises tend to go wrong. Recording a conversation you are not part of, in other words wiretapping, is a criminal offence.
Do you have to announce it?
For your own use you are usually not obliged to announce that you are recording. Privacy law does not come into play there: article 2 of the GDPR puts what a private individual does purely personally or in the household outside its scope. The moment there is a professional edge to it, the GDPR applies as normal.
Announcing it is the decent thing to do either way, and it saves arguments later. Companies calling you do it themselves, with that familiar line about training purposes.
Sharing or publishing a recording is a different matter altogether. Capturing something for yourself is not the same as passing it around, and stricter rules apply.
Recording for work brings in the GDPR
If you use recordings for work, for instance to write up client calls, you are processing personal data. The voice of the person you speak to and what they say fall under the GDPR. In practice it comes down to four things.
A proper reason
You need a legal basis. Article 6 of the GDPR lists six. For capturing client calls it is usually performance of a contract or a legitimate interest. Asking consent is then not required, as long as you can explain which basis you are relying on.
Transparency
Consent is usually not needed, informing your client always is. Article 13 of the GDPR requires you to say that the call is being captured and why, at the moment you collect the data. A sentence at the start of the call and a paragraph in your privacy statement get you a long way.
No longer than needed
You keep the data as long as you need it, secure it properly, and then remove it. That is storage limitation, set out in article 5 of the GDPR.
Your client has rights
Clients may see what you captured (article 15 GDPR), and in certain cases ask you to delete it. So count on actually having to show a summary.
That sounds heavier than it is. For most professionals capturing client calls is simply part of doing the job well: your file is complete and your client can always ask what was agreed.
How we handle this at Ajora
We built Ajora for the European rules from the start. Your transcripts are encrypted with a key tied to your account, so we cannot read them. Security explains exactly how that works, and you will find the data processing agreement there too.
Want to capture calls and get a usable summary straight away? Read how to have a phone call transcribed.
Sources
- Article 139a of the Dutch Criminal Code: conversations in a home or enclosed spacewetten.overheid.nl (Dutch)
- Article 139c of the Dutch Criminal Code: intercepting or recording telecommunicationswetten.overheid.nl (Dutch)
- Article 2 GDPR: material scope and the exception for purely personal useFull GDPR text, privacy-regulation.eu
- Article 6 GDPR: lawfulness of processingFull GDPR text, privacy-regulation.eu
- Article 13 GDPR: information to be provided when collecting dataFull GDPR text, privacy-regulation.eu
- Rules for recording a phone call and requesting the recordingACM ConsuWijzer (Dutch consumer authority)
- Article 152 of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure: evidence by any meanswetten.overheid.nl (Dutch)