A Practical Guide to Taping Phone Calls and In-Person Conversations in the 50 States and D.C.

• Introduction

• State-by-state guide

• Tape-recording laws
  at a glance

• Consent and its limits

• Interstate phone calls

• Possession and
  publication

• The FCC’s role

• Cellular & cordless calls

• Citations to cases

Georgia

Secretly recording or listening to a conversation held in a private place, without the consent of all parties, whether carried out orally or by wire or electronic means, is a felony invasion of privacy under Georgia law. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-62.

Violation of the statute carries a penalty of imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years or a fine not to exceed $10,000.00, or both. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-69. However, the law expressly provides that it does not prohibit a person who is a party to a conversation from recording, and allows recording if one party to the conversation has given prior consent. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-66. See also Malone v. State, 541 S.E.2d 431 (Ga. Ct. App. 2000).

It is also illegal for any person to divulge or distribute to any unauthorized person or authority the content or substance of any private message, regardless of whether it is intercepted lawfully or unlawfully.

However, the Court of Appeals of Georgia has held that the statute does not prohibit parents from monitoring or intercepting their minor children’s phone conversations for the purpose of ensuring the welfare of the minor child. Bishop v. State, 252 555 S.E.2d 504 (Ga. Ct. App. 2001).

Use of a hidden camera “without the consent of all persons observed, to observe, photograph, or record the activities of another which occur in any private place and out of public view” is illegal as well. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-62(2).