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ARTICLE · 13 SEPTEMBER 2016

Is it illegal to use a smartphone app to TapeACall?

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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The issue of recording telephone calls was recently considered in the Federal Court in Furnari v Ziegert [2016] FCA 1080.

AustraliaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Richard Leder
Richard Leder
Ben Winford
Ben Winford
Sanjay Schrapel
Sanjay Schrapel
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Our smartphones can be used to order food or a private car, book flights, buy goods and send and receive multimedia across the world. Why then could there be a problem if you simply use an app on your phone, such as TapeACall or Automatic Call Recorder, to record a call?

The answer to this question lies in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) (the TIA), where:

  • Section 7(1) makes it a Commonwealth criminal offence to intercept, authorise an interception or enable an interception of a communication passing over a telecommunication system;
  • Section 5F provides that a communication is taken to be passing over the telecommunications system until it becomes accessible to the intended recipient of the communication; and

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