How do you feel when you’re calling an 800 number, or your cable or phone company and you get the line “This call may be recorded”?
Have you come to accept that many of your conversations with businesses that you might have dealt with for years are recorded? Or does it feel like an invasion of privacy every time you hear that familiar message?
Now I know, that when I call some 800 numbers that the message says that my conversation may be recorded for customer service and I assume quality assurance purposes. I guess that’s ok. If the company is monitoring employees to make sure that they are doing their jobs properly, and it helps make the service that I receive when I have to call the company even better, well then I guess that’s a good thing.
It makes me wonder sometimes though, if it’s not just to monitor employees and the customer service that the company is providing, what other ways could they use that information?
Do they keep a record of your phone call in their database? Could information that you give out while you are being recorded be used against you or harm you at some point?
By this I mean, what if their database got hacked and you gave your credit card number out while you were on the phone? Could that be a new way for thieves to steal your information or maybe even your identity?
Now that’s a scary thought isn’t it?
BrickHouse Security sells a number of Phone Recorder that can allow you to tape a phone call for your personal use – such as the telephone recorder that’s displayed to the left.
They also offer a number of products that can not only detect recording devices but block them from recording your conversation.
Now, I feel that I must have a certain level of trust when I talk to my Mortgage company or bank over the phone. Perhaps using a phone recorder to record important conversations with companies such as banks etc might be a good idea. It would certainly be helpful if I was trying to recall important information that they had given to me during the discussion.
However, I don’t feel that level of trust when I call a restaurant for take out or home delivery. Many restaurants have call centers and they record phone conversations. We give our credit card number out over the phone at least half the time when we call to have food delivered. Are their databases as secure as the banks? Probably not. Which is why, if I had a phone recorder that could detect and block the recording of telephone conversations I’d use it when I called places such as restaurants.
I suppose I’d also know when ever a recording device had been activated and I could decide call by call if I wanted to block the recording of my conversation.
What do you think about your telephone conversations being recorded both with and without your knowledge by some of these companies?
Would you be interested in a phone recorder device that would allow you to record conversations or block calls from being recorded?
For me I feel like the risk of personal information getting stolen is minimal as compared to maybe other things like getting hit by a car walking in L.A. Plus I try not to reveal much information online…if they ask for a social i give only the last 4 digits, or an address or confirmed phone number as opposed to a mother’s maiden name or anything very personal. At the end of the day, while every one of these situations is a possibility, I think as long as we keep track of daily expenses like we should things end up OK.
I try to be careful with the information that I give out over the phone as well, but sometimes you have to give your full credit card number or account number.
I had a conversation on Thursday afternoon with a bank manager that I would have loved to have been able to record. She called me to tell me there was a problem with some cheques that I’d deposited on March 12th. By the middle of the conversation I was really starting to wonder if she was legit …
I knew she was because she’d first left a message and I’d called the bank back- but didn’t get her, then she called me back. The bank had actually tried to put some cheques that I’d deposited through as Canadian money (remember I’m Canadian) when the cheques were in US funds … of course the cheques came back to them as not being cashable or something like that. So she was calling me to tell me there was a problem with the cheques.
Duh … She’s the bank manager? Look at the cheques … it says they’re in US funds right on them.
I had to solve the problem myself as I spoke to her on the phone. Which is why I would have loved to have recorded the conversation just to show how stupid some people can be! LOL I would have also had a record of the conversation if I end up having any further trouble with the two cheques.