Hawaii Call Recording Laws: One-Party Consent

Hawaii is a one-party consent state for phone calls: you may record a call you take part in, or one where a participant has given prior consent. Separately, Hawaii's privacy law requires everyone's consent before you install or use a hidden device to capture sounds inside a private place. Violating the wiretap law is a class C felony, and the person recorded can collect at least $10,000 in statutory damages.

For Hawaii businesses, recording your own customer calls is lawful. The large share of calls with the mainland, including California, is the reason to announce recordings anyway.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Hawaii recording law at a glance

Question	Answer in Hawaii
Consent rule for phone calls	One party
Wiretap statute	HRS § 803-42
Private-place rule	HRS § 711-1111: consent of those entitled to privacy for hidden sound recording
Criminal penalty, wiretap law	Class C felony
Civil damages	Greater of actual damages plus profits, or $100/day or $10,000 (§ 803-48)
Texts and email	Covered by the definition of electronic communication

The wiretap statute: § 803-42

HRS § 803-42 makes it a class C felony to intentionally intercept, disclose or use wire, oral or electronic communications except as the law allows. The private-person exception is § 803-42(b)(3)(A):

"It shall not be unlawful under this part for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication when the person is a party to the communication or when one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the interception unless the communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act..."

So a participant can record, and a non-participant can record with a participant's consent, as long as the purpose is not criminal or tortious.

The fiduciary-duty footnote

Being legal under § 803-42 does not mean recording is allowed everywhere. Justia's annotations note a 2017 federal decision where a union officer argued § 803-42 permitted recording executive meetings she attended. The court held the recordings breached her fiduciary duties under federal labor law, because the union's rules forbade it. Organizations can set their own recording rules.

The privacy statute: private places

Hawaii's privacy law adds a layer the wiretap law does not. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), HRS § 711-1111 requires the consent of all persons entitled to privacy before a person installs or uses a recording device in a private place to capture sounds that would not otherwise be audible or comprehensible outside that place. A "private place" is one where a person may reasonably expect to be safe from casual or hostile intrusion or surveillance, not including places the public can access (§ 711-1100).

In plain terms: you can record your own conversation, but you cannot plant a recorder in someone's private office, hotel room or home to capture what is said there.

Penalties

Violation	Statute	Penalty
Unlawful interception, disclosure or use	§ 803-42	Class C felony; RCFP: up to 5 years, fine up to $10,000
Recording sounds or images in a private place without consent	§ 711-1111	Misdemeanor; RCFP: up to 1 year, fine up to $2,000
Recording a person in a stage of undress or sexual activity	§ 711-1110.9	Felony

Courts may also order destruction of recordings made in violation of the privacy law.

Civil liability

HRS § 803-48 gives anyone whose communication is accessed, intercepted, disclosed or used in violation of the law a civil claim. Damages are the greater of:

• the plaintiff's actual damages plus the violator's profits, or
• statutory damages of the greater of $100 a day for each day of violation or $10,000.

The RCFP adds that punitive damages, attorney's fees and litigation costs are available. With a $10,000 statutory floor, a Hawaii plaintiff does not need to prove much harm to make a claim worthwhile.

Calls between Hawaii and the mainland

Hawaii has no neighboring states, but most of its business calls with the mainland go to the West Coast.

Common call destination	Rule for phone calls
California	All-party
Washington	All-party (announcement counts)
Nevada	All-party for phone calls
Oregon	One-party for phone calls
Alaska	One-party

Tourism businesses take bookings from California, Washington and Nevada all day. California's law requires all-party consent for any call involving a cellphone and lets each person recorded seek $5,000 per violation. Read interstate call recording consent and see the state-by-state recording table.

What this means for Hawaii businesses

Hotels, tours and activity operators

Booking and concierge lines serve mainland and international callers. Announce recording at the start of every recorded call so you never depend on Hawaii's one-party rule for a California caller.

Property managers and vacation rentals

Recording calls with owners and guests is fine with notice. Recording devices inside rental units are a different matter: hidden audio in a private place runs into § 711-1111, and listing platforms have their own rules. Keep recording to your phone lines.

Healthcare and professional offices

Recordings that include health or financial details need tight access controls and a retention policy.

Employees

Have staff sign a recording and monitoring policy. That documents consent and sets expectations about personal calls on business lines.

Visitors, residents and time zones

Hawaii businesses often call the mainland early in the day, when it is afternoon on the West Coast, and many customers are visitors whose phones carry mainland area codes. Neither the area code nor the time of day tells you which state's law protects the person you are talking to. Hawaii's own rule is permissive for participants, but a single policy of announcing recordings is simpler than deciding call by call, and it avoids California's $5,000-per-violation remedy for calls with Californians.

Recording on neighbor islands and in the field

Staff on neighbor islands and in the field often answer calls on cellphones. If those calls are recorded by an app rather than your business phone system, make sure the app announces recording and stores recordings where your business controls access. Silent recording apps on personal phones are the most common gap in otherwise careful recording policies.

Hawaii recording checklist

• Recording notice at the start of recorded inbound calls
• Spoken notice on outbound recorded calls to the mainland
• No hidden recording devices in private places such as rental units or offices
• Written employee recording policy
• Callers who object are not recorded
• Recordings restricted to staff who need them
• Retention period set and followed

See call recording disclosure scripts for wording.

Recording calls in Hawaii with Callata

Callata runs in a browser and on cell phones, so your team can answer from the front desk or the dock. When recording is turned on, both sides hear "This call may be recorded." as the call connects, on inbound and outbound calls. Recordings are transcribed and summarized with sentiment and action items on the contact's record. Callata's terms keep consent-law compliance with you. Callata Office is $99 a month with five users included, and each additional user is $20 a month; recording comes with the plan. Sign up.