Have VOIP? Your calls may be recorded

berettafan · 03-30-2016, 04:46 AM

Had VOIP for a few months. Lots of issues and in the process of trying to work those issues out I was told the provider went back and listened to a call that took place while we were having an issue with sound coming through.

say what?!

Yep, I heard correctly.

No more VOIP for me.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Which provider?

I use a OOMA system for my home land line that my wife insists we keep the phone number. I have no idea is they record anything. It would be mostly telemarketers and politicians calling and leaving a message.

berettafan · 03-30-2016, 04:59 AM

appia was the provider but i'm not sure it really matters as relates to the ability to record/keep phone calls.

my network guy (sold me the system) said it was news to him.

flipper35 · flipper35's Garage

If you read the fine print on those cloud based providers they (say they) record so they can do quality control. I have recorded a few here when we had issues but we told the people we would be recording for testing. That system is long gone. I think I could turn that feature on with our current system as well but have no need for it. Ours are in house systems, not cloud provided and IT has control over what features get implemented.

Holger · 03-30-2016, 05:16 AM

No VOIP for me as long as I can have the normal line.
Wifeys paraents have VOIP.
The quality is crappy. Phone calls are cut off.
And of course, VIOP is internet ... servers are logging more info than for the normal line. And it is a lot easier to "listen". Every sysadmin at the phone company and every sysadmin of every serverfarm the call is routed through can listen without you noticing. It is like your internet traffic ...

VincentVega · 03-30-2016, 05:22 AM

Part of the service you pay for is support and management. If you dont want that just DIY.

flipper35 · flipper35's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holger

No VOIP for me as long as I can have the normal line.
Wifeys paraents have VOIP.
The quality is crappy. Phone calls are cut off.
And of course, VIOP is internet ... servers are logging more info than for the normal line. And it is a lot easier to "listen". Every sysadmin at the phone company and every sysadmin of every serverfarm the call is routed through can listen without you noticing. It is like your internet traffic ...

Again, VoIP doesn't mean it is cloud based, only some providers are. And if you are worried about that, all your cell calls are digital.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

As I said, we have the OOMA system. The only difference I notice is is only costs 3.95 per month for the Federal taxes. That is the only cost. The local phone providers wanted close to 30 bucks for basic land line with caller ID services. The quality is just like a regular land line.

Holger · 03-30-2016, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flipper35

Again, VoIP doesn't mean it is cloud based, only some providers are. And if you are worried about that, all your cell calls are digital.

Yes, I know.
I have nothing to hide, they can record everything they want. I dont care.

But I will not buy into the crappy VOIP as long as I can have the normal landline.

masraum · 03-31-2016, 02:58 AM

I'm a network engineer. Any VoIP based system can be recorded and listened to at a later date. Even if you set up your own VoIP, it could be recorded and played back by your service provider or any network that it passes through.

Pretty much every Cisco router or switch (the parts that make the Internet or any network) includes a provision for copying the network traffic that goes through them off to another location to be stored. Once that stored information is saved and collected which can be done on any laptop or computer with free software that pretty much every network engineer has, if that traffic contains a voice call, the same software can play the traffic back (https://wiki.wireshark.org/VoIP_calls).

If a VoIP provider is recording your calls, I suspect they aren't hanging onto those calls for more than a few days, maybe a week, and very unlikely that it's more than a month. They may have equipment that is basically a server full of hard drives. That server just records everything going through it. When the hard drives are full, it starts deleting the oldest info and saving the new incoming info. There are also network monitoring tools that look at every call, and can record them (usually keep them for no more than a day or two) and work out the math to determine the call quality. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the VoIP provider told you "we listened to the calls" rather than try to explain to you that they have software that tells them what the quality was. It probably wouldn't be policy for them to tell you that, but could be a tactic that a support person came up with. It would also not be surprising for the guy that sold you the system to have no idea.

I've not worked at a Voice/telco recently, but my guess is that they can do the same thing fairly easily, but no idea if they do as a matter of course or if they turn it on when needed.

dad911 · 03-31-2016, 04:22 AM

Not only that, google voice does voice to text and sends me a text of voicemails. I'm sure others are also doing that, and saving transcripts.

Computers are just too fast/powerful, and data storage too cheap for this not to happen.

flipper35 · flipper35's Garage

Steve, I doubt that POTS stays analog very far.

I think any of the managed switches can port or mirror that traffic anywhere you like.

Holger, if it is a quality or class of service issue I would stay with the landline also but many of the VoIP systems are pretty good if you have the connection for it.

stealthn · 03-31-2016, 02:43 PM

Anything anywhere is and can be recorded, trust me.