One-Party Consent States: Phone Call Recording Laws for All 50 States

Not legal advice

This page summarizes US recording laws as they apply to phone calls you take part in. Laws change, courts interpret them, and the facts of your call matter. For anything with real stakes (a dispute, an employment matter, evidence you plan to use) ask a lawyer licensed in the relevant state. Recording a call you're not part of is wiretapping almost everywhere and isn't covered here.

The federal rule

The federal Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)) lets a person record a call they are part of, or one where one party has consented, as long as the recording isn't made to commit a crime or tort. States can be stricter, and twelve are.

All-party consent states for phone calls (12)

In these states, everyone on the call must agree, or at least know, before you record. Penalties range from civil damages to felony charges.

• California: Penal Code § 632 (confidential communications) and § 632.7 (calls involving cell or cordless phones).
• Connecticut: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-570d makes recording a phone call without everyone's consent a civil wrong. The criminal statute is one-party, so treat calls as all-party.
• Delaware: two statutes conflict (11 Del. C. § 2402 permits one-party; § 1335 bars intercepting private communications without everyone's consent). Treat it as all-party.
• Florida: Fla. Stat. § 934.03, where the other person expects privacy.
• Illinois: 720 ILCS 5/14-2 bars surreptitiously recording a private conversation without the consent of all parties.
• Maryland: Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-402.
• Massachusetts: G.L. c. 272, § 99 bans secret recording. Recording openly, with everyone aware, is allowed.
• Montana: Mont. Code Ann. § 45-8-213 requires that all parties be informed, with narrow exceptions.
• Nevada: NRS 200.620. The Nevada Supreme Court (Lane v. Allstate, 1998) held phone calls need everyone's consent, though in-person conversations are one-party.
• New Hampshire: RSA 570-A:2.
• Pennsylvania: 18 Pa.C.S. § 5703 and § 5704.
• Washington: RCW 9.73.030. An announcement that is itself recorded counts as consent.

One-party consent states (38 + DC)

Here you can record a call you're part of without telling the other person, unless you're doing it to commit a crime or tort. Telling them is still good practice, and the other person may be somewhere stricter.

• Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana.
• Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska.
• New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina.
• South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

One-party states with fine print

These are usually listed as one-party for phone calls, but the details trip people up.

• Michigan: the eavesdropping statute (MCL 750.539c) reads like all-party, but courts have held a participant may record their own conversation (Sullivan v. Gray, 1982).
• Oregon: phone and electronic calls are one-party, but in-person conversations require everyone to be informed (ORS 165.540).
• Hawaii: one-party for calls, but installing a recording device in a private place without everyone's consent is a crime.
• Vermont: has no general recording statute; it follows the federal one-party rule.

Calls across state lines

When you're in a one-party state and the other person is in an all-party state, there's no single rule. California's Supreme Court (Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney, 2006) applied California law to calls recorded from Georgia. The safe approach is to follow the stricter state's rule: if either person is in an all-party state, get everyone's consent. The same goes for international calls.

How Wave handles consent

Before every call you place from Wave, the app shows a recording notice and asks you to tell the other person. Wave doesn't play a spoken announcement to them, so in an all-party state, or any time you're unsure, say it yourself at the start of the call. That way your consent is on the recording too.

Recording meetings rather than calls?

Video meetings, workplace policies, and GDPR have their own considerations. Our meeting recording laws guide covers them.