Is the GOV Notifying Callers When They Record Phone Conversations Now? (Weird Story)

[Jer]

Tinfoil hats firmly affixed for this one:

Last night I was having a phone conversation with my friend about a potential job he referred me to that I just had a phone interview for that day. It's for a pharmaceutical company and he works for one of their competitors (he's waiting for a position to open up in what he does so he can jump ship) but he referred me to a friend/ex-coworker. So the conversation was about 25min long and lots of talk about position details, compensation and company specifics. Comparing this position and company to his position (similar) and company. About 20min into it there is this loud automated message that we BOTH heard that said 'This conversation is now being recorded' and we both froze in silence. I looked at my phone (we both use Androids & there are apps you can use to record... some of which announce) and made sure nothing else was running and sure enough, display was off (had to turn it on to check) and nothing else was running. I asked him if he had heard that and he concurred that he had. I asked if he had started recording the conversation or if an app launched itself on his phone and he double checked and confirmed that he was in the same boat as me. No idea where that sound came from. We were both on mobile phones (Sprint and VZW) and he was in Corpus Christie TX on business and I'm in Colorado. Neither one of us is what I would consider a strong supporter of the GOV and voice our opinions from time to time.. never do we make threats or any sort of actionable statements... just questioning our leaders intents like a good patriot (probably soon to be changed to 'Domestic Terrorist') should. Other than that neither one of us is running a crime syndicate that we're aware of and don't break any laws other than perhaps occasionally speeding and similar minor traffic infractions.

Any ideas as to what the hell is going on here? Kind of hard to not jump to something more than just a minor glitch when privacy is involved these days. Seeing as how the Supreme Court ruled that simply compiling evidence w/o warrant isn't an invasion of privacy unless that evidence is later used against you in court I don't know why they would even announce it but I don't know. I'm at a loss on this one. Needless to say we stopped our conversation and wrapped things up just because we felt like we were being 'watched' at this point. Not that we were doing anything wrong but we're both of the mindset that it shouldn't matter if you're doing anything wrong or not... you're entitled to privacy.

WTH?

Thoughts?

[gos]

Not sure about wiretapping laws in Texas or across state lines, but in Colorado, only one person in a conversation must know about it for the tap to be legal.

Was either of you using a work-provided cell phone?

[Teufelhund]

That's very strange. The only place I can think it may have originated is maybe your service provider, though I can't think of a reason they would. The .gov is not compelled to inform you of their eavesdropping, nor are they in the habit of doing so.

[Jer]

Not sure about wiretapping laws in Texas or across state lines, but in Colorado, only one person in a conversation must know about it for the tap to be legal.

Was either of you using a work-provided cell phone?

Yeah, I know how the laws work in Colorado and I know that some states are different and require both parties to know. Either way, neither of us triggered it. Neither of us was on a work phone and I even double checked with him to make sure that he wasn't on a work phone with some draconian IT permissions. It was his personal phone on his personal time on his personal number.

That's very strange. The only place I can think it may have originated is maybe your service provider, though I can't think of a reason they would. The .gov is not compelled to inform you of their eavesdropping, nor are they in the habit of doing so.

Strange indeed. This whole thing is new on me. I know they're not compelled but what if this makes it so that if someday they choose to use that information against is they can say 'well listen to the recording your honor, we informed them they were being recorded so they both knew and still continued to talk' or something. I don't know. All I know is I've not only not experienced this before but I've never even heard of it and I have no explanation. None.

[asmo]

Did you get tones and a message number with it?

Most cell companies will randomly 'monitor' calls for quality - its automated and no human actually listens to the content. They are trying to get MOS values.

I know when VZW does it to live customers they get a message interrupting the call. But it announces that it is VZW and gives a tone set.

[Jer]

Did you get tones and a message number with it?

Most cell companies will randomly 'monitor' calls for quality - its automated and no human actually listens to the content. They are trying to get MOS values.

I know when VZW does it to live customers they get a message interrupting the call. But it announces that it is VZW and gives a tone set.

I got no tones or message number with it. I'm not even sure what she said at the beginning because I wasn't expecting to be interrupted and if I was it wasn't by a female robot so it caught me a little bit off guard. I just remember hearing her say the conversation would be recorded and that was that.

[Byte Stryke]

The government does not tell you when they are recording you. Someone was jacking you around or it was a private agency

[Jer]

The government does not tell you when they are recording you. Someone was jacking you around or it was a private agency

Yeah, I know they don't. What the hell was this then? The person I was talking to isn't the type to play such games so I know it wasn't him. That leaves me and I'm pretty sure I would have remembered jacking with me.

[Monky]

It was the scientologists!

[StagLefty]

I'm leaning to it was Ginsue-damn mods