Recording Phone Calls

[WestCoastCumbria]

Hi All,

 

We are about to switch to VOiP phone system and one option we have is to record calls which would be for student support staff only.

Would we need to specify on the auto attendant that calls maybe recorded or is it enough to have some kind of privacy notice on our website?

Its mainly for safeguarding issues and dealing with angry parents that claim our staff were rude, abusive etc.

 

Thank You

[DrBeaker]

Hi All,

 

We are about to switch to VOiP phone system and one option we have is to record calls which would be for student support staff only.

Would we need to specify on the auto attendant that calls maybe recorded or is it enough to have some kind of privacy notice on our website?

Its mainly for safeguarding issues and dealing with angry parents that claim our staff were rude, abusive etc.

 

Thank You

I'm interested to see this - I wonder how this works with GDPR etc and voice recordings? As your voice can be used to uniquely identify you. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48150575 That will add to your workload perhaps?

 

Is there anyone more versed in GDPR who can weigh in on this?

[PotNoodleTech]

We've got it on the auto attendant similar to almost every other company. If they choose to continue the call then they acknowledge that calls may be recorded.

[DrBeaker]

We've got it on the auto attendant similar to almost every other company. If they choose to continue the call then they acknowledge that calls may be recorded.

 

As we know most schools are well behind the times when it comes to technology. What phone system do you use on yours? On your system how would you search for a recording from a parent for example under GDPR subject access requests?

[Jamman960]

As we know most schools are well behind the times when it comes to technology. What phone system do you use on yours? On your system how would you search for a recording from a parent for example under GDPR subject access requests?

 

On our FreePBX system I'd search the call logs for the parents number, if there was a recording attached to the call the option to play it would be available.

[synaesthesia]

You need to specify what the calls are recorded for, i.e. for marketing it's normally "quality assurance purposes". You can negate much of the GDPR related workload by keeping a very small retention period, i.e. a week; long enough to recall a recording should a problem occur, but at the same time you may need a recorded log of certain conversations. However that should be rare enough for you to keep those organised properly under the relevant student(s) files, so SAR would be easily handled.

[DrBeaker]

You need to specify what the calls are recorded for, i.e. for marketing it's normally "quality assurance purposes". You can negate much of the GDPR related workload by keeping a very small retention period, i.e. a week; long enough to recall a recording should a problem occur, but at the same time you may need a recorded log of certain conversations. However that should be rare enough for you to keep those organised properly under the relevant student(s) files, so SAR would be easily handled.

Normally with companies the "quality assurance purposes" is an excuse for an "arse-covering exercise"

[GrumbleDook]

You need a purpose and a lawful basis.

If you have these, presuming consent is not the lawful basis, then informing data subjects is key.

[Linfit]

We have a warning on our auto-attendant about this which gives the reasons as security and safeguarding purposes, but we do not routinely record calls - its ad-hoc and requires the recipient to press a button on the phone. This facility is only available to a limited number of staff and they have been briefed that they must tell the other party if they switch the feature on. The recordings are only kept on the system for 5 days unless they are extracted for a specific purpose, and as synaesthesia said, these would then be attached to the student data file. This reduces the GDPR overhead. I think if you routinely recorded calls there would be more of an overhead to keep everything compliant.

[WestCoastCumbria]

We have a warning on our auto-attendant about this which gives the reasons as security and safeguarding purposes, but we do not routinely record calls - its ad-hoc and requires the recipient to press a button on the phone. This facility is only available to a limited number of staff and they have been briefed that they must tell the other party if they switch the feature on. The recordings are only kept on the system for 5 days unless they are extracted for a specific purpose, and as synaesthesia said, these would then be attached to the student data file. This reduces the GDPR overhead. I think if you routinely recorded calls there would be more of an overhead to keep everything compliant.

 

This is how we would be using it, ad-hoc with limited staff. Thanks for the info.

[enjay]

We've got it on the auto attendant similar to almost every other company. If they choose to continue the call then they acknowledge that calls may be recorded.

 

What about outbound calls, from the school to someone else? The recipient of that call obviously wouldn't hear the auto attendant.