Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in New York
privacy laws
I work part-time for a newspaper in the verification dept. My job is to take outbound calls and check delivery service, re-sell the paper to the customer at a reduced rate, and verify orders. Recently, one of the bosses had a system installed that enables he and other bosses to listen in on our conversations from time to time...this system also records entire conversations that is to say, customers are also being recorded. There is nothing telling the customer prior to the call prompt on my end that they may be recorded for ''quality assurance'', nor did any of us sign anything stating that we know they will be listening and/or recording us. I feel, as others do, that this is an infringement on our rights as well as the customers' because they installed this without letting us know. One of us recently discovered that when we are not speaking with a customer, ''they'' are still listening to us speak with each other while waiting for another call. Isn't this a blatent disregard to privacy laws and also possibly illegal wire tapping? Please let me know what my, and our, rights are. Also, would we have a case against them?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: privacy laws
As long as the recording is used to randomly check the calls, I think they are within their rights. If they
specifically record one individual or a group, on a regular basis without notice, that would be different.
Generally, there is no expectation of privacy when you speak to another person in a business call. You are protected by the constitution from governmental searches and seizures, without a warrant.
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