VoIP blog › VoIP Features
VoIP FeaturesIs Call Recording Legal In Canada?
Yes, in the ordinary case. But the Criminal Code is only the floor, and privacy law asks considerably more of a business than it does of an individual.
Short answer: yes, in the ordinary case. The Criminal Code of Canada permits recording a private conversation where at least one party to it consents. That is the one-party consent rule, and if you are on the call, you are a party to it.
That is where most articles stop, and it is the wrong place to stop if you run a business. The Criminal Code sets the floor. Privacy law sits on top of it, and it asks more of you.
This is not legal advice. It is a plain summary of the rules we are asked about constantly. Before you set a recording policy, have it reviewed by a lawyer who knows your industry.
Where PIPEDA changes the answer
When a business records a customer call, the recording is personal information. Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act you have to tell the person you are recording, tell them why, and give them a meaningful way to decline. In British Columbia the provincial Personal Information Protection Act covers most private-sector organisations, with similar obligations.
In practice that means one-party consent is not the standard your business should be working to. Notify people. It is the ethical position, it is what your customers expect, and it removes the argument entirely.
The two setups businesses actually use
Recording all incoming calls
Put it in the greeting. Something like “your call may be recorded for quality and training purposes” covers notification and purpose in one line, before anyone starts talking. Callers who object can hang up or ask to continue unrecorded, which is the meaningful alternative the legislation is looking for.
On-demand recording
Recording is triggered per call at the handset using a star code. It suits businesses that only need a record of specific conversations, such as an order confirmation or a disputed instruction. The notification obligation does not disappear because it is occasional, so whoever starts the recording should say so.
Your own staff are a separate question
Telling your team verbally that calls are recorded is not enough. Put it in writing and have people sign it. This protects you twice over: it establishes consent, and it gives you a documented basis for performance management or dismissal if a recording ever becomes evidence. Without a signed policy, a recording used in a termination can turn into a wrongful dismissal problem rather than a defence against one.
Why businesses record in the first place
Training new staff is the most common reason, and the way it is done matters. Listen to calls together rather than reviewing them privately and arriving with a list of faults. Going through a call as it plays, with the person who made it, earns you the standing to be critical.
The same applies to ongoing reviews. One randomly chosen call per month with each senior team member, discussed openly, does more for service quality than any amount of silent monitoring. Recordings are also straightforwardly useful for resolving disputes about what was agreed.
Where the recordings live
One question worth asking any provider: what country are the recordings stored in? A recording of a Canadian customer sitting on American infrastructure is reachable under American law, which is a different answer than the one you probably want to give a client who asks. Our network is Canadian, so recordings stay in Canada.
Call recording is included in our plans, both on demand and scenario based. If you want help wording the greeting so it covers you properly, our team does this regularly.