Publications

Amended Eavesdropping Law

The Illinois legislature has once again amended the Illinois Eavesdropping Law. This latest amendment substantially limits an employer’s ability to monitor employees’ telephone calls. The exemption from the general prohibition against eavesdropping is now restricted to employers engaged in "marketing or opinion research" or "telephone solicitation."

Telephone solicitation is defined as "a communication through the use of a telephone by live operators

soliciting the sale of goods or services
receiving orders of the sale of goods or services
assisting in the use of goods or services
engaging in the solicitation, administration or collection of bank or retail credit accounts"

Marketing or opinion research is defined as "a marketing or opinion research interview conducted by a live telephone interviewer engaged by a corporation or other business entity whose principal business is the design, conduct and analysis of polls and surveys measuring the opinions, attitudes and responses of respondents toward products and services, social or political issues or both."

If the employer is engaged in marketing or opinion research or telephone solicitation the new law further restricts the monitoring of telephone conversations by limiting the purpose of monitoring as well.

Under the new amendment, the purpose is now limited to:

service quality control of market or opinion research or telephone solicitation
the education or training of employees or contractors engaged in market or opinion research or telephone solicitation
Internal research related to marketing or opinion research or telephone solicitation

Employers must also be aware that the law as amended requires the employer to first obtain the consent of at least one active party to the conversation before monitoring is permitted. If in the course of monitoring telephone conversations the employer realizes that a particular call does not relate to the market or opinion research or telephone solicitation, the employer must immediately stop listening to or recording the call.