New York Call Recording Laws: One-Party Consent

New York is a one-party consent state: a sender or receiver of a phone call may record it, and so may a person with the consent of either. Recording a call or conversation you are not part of, without any participant's consent, is eavesdropping, a class E felony.

New York City businesses deal constantly with callers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Three of those four have stricter rules, which is why an announced recording is the norm for New York companies that record.

This is general information, not legal advice.

New York recording law at a glance

Question	Answer in New York
Consent rule	One party (sender or receiver)
Main statutes	Penal Law §§ 250.00 (definitions), 250.05 (eavesdropping)
Can a participant record without telling others?	Yes
Criminal penalty	Class E felony
Cellphones and texts	Covered
Stored messages	Not covered in transit-based reading (People v. Thompson, 2016)

What the statute says

New York's eavesdropping law is in Article 250 of the Penal Law. Section 250.05 makes a person guilty of eavesdropping when they unlawfully engage in wiretapping, mechanical overhearing of a conversation, or intercepting or accessing an electronic communication. Eavesdropping is a class E felony.

Section 250.00 supplies the definitions that create the one-party rule:

• Wiretapping is the intentional overhearing or recording of a telephonic or telegraphic communication by a person other than a sender or receiver, without the consent of either the sender or receiver.
• Mechanical overhearing of a conversation is the intentional overhearing or recording of a conversation, without the consent of at least one party, by a person not present.
• Intercepting or accessing an electronic communication covers acquiring electronic communications without the consent of the sender or intended receiver.

So a person on the call, or a person with a participant's consent, is not eavesdropping.

Cellphones, texts and email

According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), a New York court held in Sharon v. Sharon (1990) that the law applies to cellphones and cordless phones. The definition of electronic communication covers "any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature," which includes texts and email.

A trial court held in People v. Thompson (2016) that the law applies only to communications in transit, not to messages stored after they are sent or received.

In-person conversations

Mechanical overhearing requires that the person recording is "not present." A participant who records a face-to-face meeting is present and is not eavesdropping. Recording a meeting in a room you are not in, without anyone's consent, is a felony.

Penalties

Violation	Statute	Classification	Maximum (per RCFP)
Eavesdropping	§ 250.05	Class E felony	4 years, $5,000
Possession of eavesdropping devices with intent	§ 250.10	Class A misdemeanor	—

The RCFP notes that New York's eavesdropping law does not prohibit disclosing recorded communications. Other laws, including privacy and defamation claims, can still apply to how recordings are used.

Civil liability

New York's Penal Law does not create its own civil remedy for eavesdropping. The federal Wiretap Act does: 18 U.S.C. § 2520 allows civil suits for interceptions that violate federal law. Federal law is one-party consent, 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d), unless the recording is for a criminal or tortious purpose. If a caller is in an all-party state, that state's civil remedies may apply.

Recordings as evidence in New York

Recording lawfully matters beyond avoiding a felony. New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules § 4506 bars evidence obtained through criminal eavesdropping from being used in civil and criminal proceedings, with limited exceptions. A recording your business made as a party to the call is not eavesdropping and can be offered as evidence, subject to the usual rules. A recording made by listening in on a call between others, without any participant's consent, may be unusable, and creates criminal exposure. If you rely on recordings to resolve customer disputes, make sure they are made by a participant and kept unaltered.

Calls between New York and neighboring states

Neighbor	Rule for phone calls
New Jersey	One-party
Connecticut	All-party, recorded notice or beep tone for phone calls (civil)
Massachusetts	All-party; no secret recording
Pennsylvania	All-party
Vermont	No statute; one-party in practice

The New York metro area pulls in callers from Connecticut and New Jersey every day, and upstate businesses deal with Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Vermont. Connecticut's civil statute requires a recorded verbal notice, consent or a beep tone for phone calls. Read interstate call recording consent and see the state-by-state table.

Three New York scenarios

A Manhattan brokerage records client calls. The brokers are parties, so New York law allows it. Clients in Connecticut and Massachusetts are protected by stricter laws, and financial regulators often require recordkeeping too. The firm announces recording on every call.

A Buffalo contractor secretly records a call with a customer in Erie, Pennsylvania. New York allows it. Pennsylvania requires all-party consent. Announce the recording.

A Long Island business owner records calls on an employee's line from a separate room without the employee or caller knowing. The owner is neither sender nor receiver and has no consent. That is wiretapping under § 250.05, a class E felony.

What this means for New York businesses

Finance and professional services

Firms record calls for compliance. Build an announcement into every recorded line so callers from all-party states are covered.

Real estate and property management

Brokers and managers often record on cellphone apps. Choose a system that announces recording.

Healthcare

Recordings with patient information need access controls and a retention schedule.

Employees

A signed recording and monitoring policy documents consent on your side.

Conference calls with several states

A single conference call can include people in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey at once. New York's one-party rule does not help with the Connecticut participant, whose state's civil statute requires all-party consent, a recorded notice or a beep tone. Announce recording at the start of every recorded conference, and again when someone joins late. Most conferencing tools can play an automatic notice when recording begins.

New York recording checklist

• Recording notice at the start of recorded inbound calls
• Spoken notice on outbound recorded calls, especially to CT, MA and PA
• Signed employee recording and monitoring policy
• No recording of calls or meetings you are not part of
• Callers who object are not recorded
• Access controls and retention schedule

Wording is in call recording disclosure scripts.

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