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Law 25

A Law 25 consent form, with the example.

Under Law 25 consent has to be manifest, free and informed, given for specific purposes, and it is requested for each of those purposes. Here is what that comes to for a phone line that records: the wording of the announcement in French and English, a written consent form you can copy, and where each of them goes.

Manifest, free, informed, for specific purposesOne named purpose per consent, not a listAn announcement informs; on its own it does not consent

What a valid consent has to carry

Five conditions, all at once. Consent has to be manifest, which means a real positive indication rather than the absence of an objection; free, so not tied to something the person cannot refuse; informed, so the person knows what is collected, by whom, and for how long; given for specific purposes, each one named; and requested for each of those purposes, in simple and clear terms, rather than in one block.

Two more rules apply when it is asked for in writing. The request is presented distinctly from any other information given to the person, and consent to the use of sensitive personal information has to be express. Consent that is not given in accordance with the law is without effect. Section 14, chapter P‑39.1.

The last two conditions matter most for a phone line, because quality assurance, training and evidence in a dispute are three purposes and not one. Consent obtained for the first does not cover the other two, and listing all three in one announcement is not a shortcut: it is the exact thing granularity rules out.

The recording announcement

This is the part a caller hears, and the only part most businesses have. It has to carry that recording is happening, the purpose it is happening for, and enough for the caller to decide whether to continue.

Weak, and the most common wording there is

This call may be recorded for quality purposes.

It tells the caller nothing decidable: it neither confirms that recording is happening nor names why, and delivered in English first it undercuts the duty to serve in French.

Better, in French. This one stays in French whichever language you are reading: it is what the caller hears.

Cet appel est enregistré afin de vérifier la qualité de notre service.

The same, in the English branch of your menu

This call is recorded so that we can check the quality of our service.

The second confirms rather than hedges, names one purpose, and is shorter. If you record for more than one purpose, name them, and remember that separate purposes need separately obtained consent: for anything beyond an ordinary inbound service call, what you need is the written form below, not a longer sentence.

Why the announcement is in French too

The written form

Use it where the announcement is not enough: an outbound call you started, a new purpose for a recording you already have, a matter where sensitive information is going to come up, or a contracted client who is going to be recorded routinely.

The square brackets are the parts only you can fill in. They are deliberately not pre-filled with something plausible: an example that reads like an answer is an example somebody sends out as it stands.

CONSENT TO CALL RECORDING [Business name], [address], records the audio of your calls with us, along with the date, the time and the length of the call. PURPOSES. Tick the ones you agree to. You may agree to one without agreeing to the others. [ ] Checking the quality of our service [ ] Training our staff [ ] Keeping evidence of what was agreed RETENTION. Recordings are kept for [period], then deleted. WHO CAN LISTEN. [Roles or named people]. They are not disclosed to anyone else, except [name the third parties, or write: no disclosure to any third party]. OUTSIDE QUEBEC. Recordings are kept in [region, country]. [If they leave Quebec: we have carried out the assessment required before that communication.] WITHDRAWAL. You may withdraw your consent at any time by writing to [email]. Withdrawal applies going forward. ACCESS AND CORRECTION. You may ask for a copy of what we hold about you, or for it to be corrected, at the same address. PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION [Name], [title], [email], [telephone] Name: ________________________________ Date: ______________ Signature: ___________________________

Three things not to do while filling it in. Do not pre-tick any box, because a box ticked in advance is not a positive indication. Do not collapse the three boxes into one, because granularity is exactly what the statute asks for here. And do not leave the retention period open: a missing period is a period your own announcement stops justifying after a few months.

Where each one goes

The announcement goes after the greeting and before the menu: a caller should know before they start giving information, not after. Played in the wrong order it informs somebody who has already spoken.

It goes on the paths that actually record, not on all of them. An announcement on a call you do not record is simply inaccurate, and it is the kind of inaccuracy that undermines the rest of your policy.

It goes in French, with the English announcement living in the English branch rather than stacked in front of the French one. Telephone reception falls under the Charter of the French Language if you serve the public in Quebec, which is an obligation rather than a configuration option.

The written form goes wherever the file lives: in the contract, in the client record, or in the email that precedes the first recorded call. What matters is being able to find it again, because a consent you cannot produce is a consent you cannot demonstrate.

What the example does not settle

It does not decide your purposes. Nobody can do that for you, and a form that picks them has you consenting to purposes that are not yours. Nor does it turn an announcement into consent: an announcement is information, and whether staying on the line amounts to consent depends on the situation. An inbound call the person chose to make, with a real chance to hang up, is not the same thing as an outbound call you started.

On the product side: Ringfully stores a per-organisation recording announcement, you can edit it, and it is played on the call. In always mode the caller hears it before being connected. In the agent’s-choice mode nothing is said at the start, because nobody yet knows there will be a recording, and the announcement plays just after recording begins: that is the ordering to weigh if your notice has to precede every recorded second. And an empty field is silence. Nothing is said, the recording still runs, and the duty to inform is discharged by the sentence you write rather than by the field existing.

Further reading

Law 25, and what it asks of a business

Call-recording consent under Law 25, in detail

Our recording policy

A description of what the statute asks, not legal advice, and a template still less so. Wording that satisfies two regimes at once is worth ten minutes with a Quebec-qualified adviser.