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Stay Connected - and Legal -- With Call Recording Compliance

By Michael Guta, Contributing Writer

Call recording compliance is raised in call centers, enterprises, and even SMBs in certain industries. As the technology to make call recording becomes more viable, governments around the world are implementing new regulations to ensure consumer rights are not violated, and they are mandating call recording laws in many new industries. It is important to note, the compliance laws also affect how the recorded data is stored and retrieved.

Knowing which legislation applies to your industry is critical, because the violation can be very costly if call recording compliances are not followed. Some of the more important ones are:

• BASEL II (officially known as the International Convergence (News - Alert) of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards) – Assures confidentiality and integrity of personal financial information stored by financial institutions; availability of financial systems; integrity of financial information as it is transmitted; authentication and integrity of financial transactions
• GLBA (Gramm-Leachy Bliley Act) – For confidentiality and integrity of personal financial information stored by financial institutions
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) – Assures confidentiality, integrity and availability of health care information
• PCI (News - Alert) DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) – For confidentiality of credit card information stored and used by merchants
• Sarbanes-Oxley –Privacy and integrity of financial data in publicly traded corporations.
• SB 1386 (a California State bill) – For confidentiality of customers' personal information stored by any organization that does business in the state of California.

If an organization does business outside of the country in which it is based, then it must take adequate precautions to ensure it is not violating any of the laws pertaining to call recording. Because the laws being implemented are rather new and many amendments to existing communications and IT infrastructure, operations, policies and procedures are being added, not all attorneys or compliance officers may be aware of them. So it is critical to find out what they are no matter what country you are in.

South Africa is home to the African headquarters of many multi-national companies, and recently it has implemented new laws and made changes to existing laws to protect consumers by keeping detailed records and protecting the security of the data. These laws are far reaching and organizations doing business there have to be aware of them to make sure they are compliant. The legislations are the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), and the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).