From Pine View Farm

Corporate Eavesdropping 0

The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that Californians’ privacy rights are violated when their telephone conversations are secretly recorded by out-of-state callers.

The justices sided with plaintiffs who sued Salomon Smith Barney Inc., now Smith Barney Inc., for secretly recording phone conversations between Atlanta-based brokers and California customers.

No brainer.

The company I used to work for–this was eight years ago–had several call centers to serve the nation. They were well aware that taping calls for “quality control” or “training” purposes was subject to the laws of the state from which the call originated.

(Aside: training was the primary reason they taped calls–they would record them and then play them back to the agent in private coaching sessions to help the agent do a better job of bambooz up-selling.)

That’s why, when any of us calls an 800-number, we hear the warning that “this call may be recorded blah blah blah . . .”

Guess Smith-Barney couldn’t figure it out.

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