• Jajcus@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    In Europe smartphones have all call recording features disabled. “Because of regulations”. So corporations and scammers can record us whenever they wish, bu lt we cannot, even though it would provide us some defence. I thing the ‘regulations’ here protect the wrong side. Which is surprising, as EU is usually quite decent in consumer protection.

    • MangoCats@feddit.it
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      6 days ago

      smartphones have all call recording features disabled.

      By default - I believe if you are determined enough, you can record the call, if nothing else with a mechanical device attached to the earpiece of your phone.

      • db2@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        if nothing else with a mechanical device attached to the earpiece of your phone

        That hasn’t been a thing since Bell telephone landlines.

        • MangoCats@feddit.it
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          6 days ago

          That’s a thing any time you decide you want one bad enough to find and buy it, or make it yourself. For far less than the cost of your cellphone you can contract with people who know how to make you a 3D printed little bug that does exactly that digital recording, possibly leveraging your phone to do most of the storage and user interface work.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          To get around the legal side, they built a mandatory audio warning into the app. The moment you hit record, it loudly tells the other person they’re being recorded, which checks the legal boxes for consent under EU privacy laws.

          As a resident of a one-party-consent state, I absolutely loathe that fucking thing. Who the fuck does Google think it is, to unilaterally decide that I’m not allowed to exercise my right to record without notice?!

          That reminds me, I need to check if GrapheneOS gets rid of the asinine warning.

          • moopet@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            Most calls to companies start with you having to listen to their blurb about how they’re unusually busy at the moment and need to press some numbers before speaking to anyone. Presumably hitting record during that stage is adequate for legal purposes but the company will never hear the warning, so do it then. Obviously that doesn’t help with incoming calls.

        • MangoCats@feddit.it
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          6 days ago

          In the old terms: there’s an app for that…

          Even when the default app recording is disabled there are plenty of audio recording applications which work quite well - including with transcription. Ever need a transcript of a meeting? Put the phone in your shirt pocket with a recording app active - it’s amazingly efficient.

          • Jajcus@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            I tried some of those apps. Sine would be ‘Unavailable for my device’, some would install and start, but not work, because if unavailable API and some would pretend to work, but 9nky record my side of the call (using microphone not actual call audio). Samsung decided this should not be available for me, even though it would be legal here. But I may give it a try again. Maybe thing changed.