> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbit.devotel.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Call Recording Consent > Per-jurisdiction guidance for lawful call recording, and how Orbit enforces consent announcements on inbound and outbound voice # Call Recording Consent Recording a phone call without proper notification is a criminal offence in most jurisdictions where Orbit operates. This page is the canonical reference for which jurisdictions require one-party, all-party, or explicit-consent recording, and how Orbit's voice platform helps you comply. This page describes Orbit's platform controls. It is **not legal advice.** Recording law varies by call destination, caller location, call purpose, and industry (healthcare, finance, and debt collection carry sector-specific overlays). Confirm your obligations with qualified counsel before launching a recording program. *** ## How Orbit enforces consent Every voice number on Orbit carries a per-organization **recording-consent policy** configured under **Voice → Calls → Recording settings**. The policy is a **two-axis** model and is persisted in org settings under `settings.recording.{eligibility_mode, consent_announcement_mode}`. The two axes are orthogonal: eligibility decides *which* calls are captured, while the announcement mode decides *how* participants are notified. ### Axis 1 — `eligibility_mode` (which calls auto-record) | Mode | Behaviour | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `manual` | No call is recorded by default. Operators must opt in per call. | | `inbound_only` | Records calls received by your team. Outbound calls are not recorded. | | `outbound_only` | Records calls placed by your team. Inbound calls are not recorded. | | `all_calls` | Every inbound and outbound call is recorded automatically. | ### Axis 2 — `consent_announcement_mode` (how participants are notified) | Mode | Behaviour | | ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `none` | No announcement is played. Use only when recording is disabled, or when you operate an external consent process yourself. **Auto-recording with `none` warns the operator that two-party-consent laws may be violated.** | | `announce_caller` | Plays the consent announcement to the caller only. The other leg dials without an announcement. | | `announce_all` | Plays the consent announcement to every party on every call — inbound, outbound, and on agent transfer. **Required for all two-party-consent jurisdictions.** | | `dual_channel` | **Reserved — not yet implemented.** Independent per-leg consent (each channel captured and notified separately) is planned but not live. Selecting it today plays the same single pre-connect announcement as the other `announce_*` modes and does **not** notify legs independently — use `announce_all` for two-party-consent jurisdictions. | Selecting any `eligibility_mode` other than `manual` while `consent_announcement_mode` is `none` surfaces an in-app warning, because auto-recording without an announcement may violate two-party-consent laws. Pair an auto-record eligibility with an announcement mode unless you have a documented external consent process. The announcement itself can be either a TTS string (read out by Cartesia or ElevenLabs in the org's default voice) or a URL to a `.wav` / `.mp3` file in GCS or any reachable HTTPS endpoint. By default this announcement plays once, before the call connects to the human or agent leg. Two later events — pausing and resuming a recording, and joining a recorded conference — add a further mid-call disclosure on top of that pre-connect announcement. See [Mid-call disclosures](#mid-call-disclosures) below. Recording is captured at the **org level** through Orbit's media-egress pipeline (`orbit-media-egress`). The pre-connect announcement plays *before* the call connects and before recording starts, so if the caller hangs up during the announcement, no recording is captured and no per-minute recording cost is billed. Pausing and resuming a recording, or admitting a participant into a recorded conference, can trigger an additional disclosure during the call — see [Mid-call disclosures](#mid-call-disclosures). ### Mid-call disclosures The pre-connect announcement is the default, single notification. Two events add a second consent touch-point during a live call, both governed by the same org recording-consent policy. **Pause and resume.** When you pause a recording and later resume it with `POST /voice/calls/{id}/recording/pause` and `POST /voice/calls/{id}/recording/resume` (see [Operator obligations](#operator-obligations)), Orbit plays a short spoken notice to the parties announcing that recording was paused or resumed. This disclosure plays only when consent enforcement is on and the call falls under an all-party-consent posture; one-party calls that already heard the start-of-call notice are not interrupted again. The pause and resume text can be overridden per org and is localized to the org's primary language. **Joining a recorded conference.** When a participant joins — or is transferred — into a conference that records with per-participant consent, that participant hears their own consent prompt as they enter and presses a key to grant or decline. The prompt is played to the joining party only, not to the whole room, and that participant's audio is held out of the recording until they respond — so a leg is never mixed in without a recorded consent decision. If the room's consent posture cannot be determined, Orbit prompts anyway and holds the leg, rather than including a participant by omission. *** ## Jurisdiction matrix The matrix below summarises the prevailing rule per region. Where a country has subnational variation (US, Canada, Australia), the strictest in-scope state's rule applies if you route to that jurisdiction. The **Orbit announcement mode** column refers to the `consent_announcement_mode` axis; choose your `eligibility_mode` separately based on which calls you intend to capture. | Region | Rule | Orbit announcement mode | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | | United States — federal | One-party consent (18 U.S.C. § 2511) | `announce_caller` minimum | | United States — CA, CT, DE, FL, HI, IL, MA, MD, MT, NH, OR, PA, VT, WA | **All-party consent** by state statute | `announce_all` required | | United States — other 36 states | One-party consent suffices | `announce_caller` acceptable | | European Union | GDPR Art 6 lawful basis + ePrivacy Art 5(1) — explicit consent or another documented basis | `announce_all` recommended | | United Kingdom | UK GDPR + PECR + RIPA — broadly mirrors EU posture | `announce_all` recommended | | Canada — federal (PIPEDA) | Implied consent acceptable for QA with clear notice; explicit consent for marketing | `announce_all` recommended | | Canada — Quebec (Law 25) | Stricter than PIPEDA; treat as explicit-consent | `announce_all` required | | Australia — ACT, QLD, SA, WA | One-party consent | `announce_caller` acceptable | | Australia — NSW, VIC, TAS, NT | All-party consent under state Surveillance Devices Acts | `announce_all` required | | UAE, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Turkey, India | Treat as all-party / explicit consent — unauthorised recording is criminal in most cases | `announce_all` required | | Brazil (LGPD), Argentina, Chile | Explicit consent + documented lawful basis | `announce_all` required | | Any other jurisdiction | Operator's responsibility to verify; default to `announce_all` until counsel confirms otherwise | `announce_all` (default) | When in doubt, set the policy to `announce_all`. The announcement is brief (typical 5–8 seconds for "This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes"), customer-service trained, and legally defensible across every jurisdiction Orbit supports. *** ## Per-region detail Federal wiretap law (18 U.S.C. § 2511) permits recording when at least one party to the call consents — and the recording party counts as that one party. Fourteen states layer an all-party-consent requirement on top: **California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington**. The applicable rule is determined by where the parties are physically located at the time of the call, not the location of the carrier or the dashboard operator. If any party is in an all-party state, that state's rule governs. Industry overlays: **HIPAA** (treat call audio as PHI when it discusses health), **PCI DSS** (do not record DTMF tones that capture card numbers — use Orbit's PCI mask feature), **FDCPA / TCPA** (debt collection and telemarketing have additional notice requirements beyond recording consent). Under **GDPR Art 6**, recording requires a documented lawful basis (consent, contract performance, legitimate interest, legal obligation, etc.). **ePrivacy Directive Art 5(1)** layers on a confidentiality-of-communications requirement that, in most member-state implementations, is read as requiring explicit notification before recording starts. The UK applies the equivalent regime via UK GDPR, PECR, and RIPA. The pragmatic posture: play the announcement to every party (`announce_all`), keep a record of the legal basis (`consent`, `legitimate_interest`, etc.) in your CRM, and ensure the customer can request access or deletion of recordings via your GDPR data-subject-rights process. Orbit's retention policy (configurable per channel under **Settings → Compliance → Retention**) lets you auto-delete recordings after a fixed window. **PIPEDA** (federal, applies to commercial activity) treats recording as a collection of personal information and requires knowledge and consent at the time of collection. For quality-assurance recording with a clear, prominent notice at the start of the call, regulators have accepted **implied consent**. For marketing or sales-evaluation recording, **explicit consent** is the safer posture. **Quebec's Law 25** (in force since 2023) is stricter than PIPEDA and is best treated as an explicit-consent regime. Recording is governed by state Surveillance Devices Acts, not federal law. **ACT, QLD, SA, and WA** are one-party-consent jurisdictions. **NSW, VIC, TAS, and NT** require all-party consent. The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) also prohibits intercepting a call in transit without a warrant, but does not generally restrict consensual recording by a party to the call. UAE, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Turkey, and India all treat unauthorised recording as a criminal offence under their respective penal or telecommunications codes. Brazil's LGPD, Argentina's Personal Data Protection Act, and Chile's Law 19.628 all require an explicit lawful basis plus notice. For every region not separately listed above, treat the default as `announce_all` plus documented consent capture, and confirm with local counsel before routing production traffic. *** ## Operator obligations Orbit gives you the controls; the obligations remain yours. If your call may traverse a jurisdiction with all-party-consent, configure `announce_all` for the entire org — not just for numbers serving that region. Cross-jurisdictional liability is determined by the strictest state on the call. For GDPR / LGPD / PIPEDA destinations, keep a record per contact of which lawful basis applies and how it was captured. Orbit's contact custom fields can store this; export them quarterly to your compliance system. GDPR Art 17, CCPA, and Quebec Law 25 give data subjects the right to request deletion of their recordings. Orbit exposes a per-contact delete endpoint and a retention-policy scheduler. Build the request flow into your support process. Pause recording before capturing card numbers, full SSNs, or health-screening responses, then resume onto the same recording file. Orbit exposes `POST /voice/calls/{id}/recording/pause` and `POST /voice/calls/{id}/recording/resume` for PCI- and HIPAA-scope flows; each paused window is stamped onto the call's audit timeline (`call.recording.paused` / `call.recording.resumed`) so a reviewer can prove exactly which seconds were excluded from the stored media. *** ## Where to configure * **Per-org default:** **Voice → Calls → Recording settings**. This picks the eligibility mode (`eligibility_mode`), the announcement mode (`consent_announcement_mode`), and the TTS / audio URL. It is the policy that governs every call unless a narrower control below overrides it. * **Per-inbound-route override:** **Numbers → \