Webtapping

Logging the IP addresses of users that access certain websites is commonly called "webtapping".

Webtapping is used to monitor websites that presumably contain dangerous or sensitive materials, and the people that access them. Though it is allowed by the USA PATRIOT Act, it is considered a questionable practice by many citizens, if not an all-out violation of civil liberties.

Telephone tapping

Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception. Passive wiretapping monitors or records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it.

Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony

Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony began emerging in the mid 1990s. In commercial environments VoIP was first used behind corporate PBXes in order to deploy telephones capable of delivering additional computing services. In the consumer environment VoIP was introduced to allow people to bypass telco long-distance charges, either allowing callers to communicate directly, or allowing them to connect to local telco bridges. Finally, telcos themselves very quickly deployed IP-based backbones in order to more efficiently carry their long-distance traffic.

The rapid growth of VoIP-based telephony has led to the introduction of a plethora of VoIP recording solutions. All VoIP services allow or will soon allow calls to be recorded.

Direct recording

Direct recording of mobile phone calls requires a hardware adapter connected to the handset. There are many other ways to record mobile phone calls. One approach is to route calls via a new PBX system linked to the recorder. However, such systems are typically expensive to purchase and change the way that calls are made, incurring running costs. Another approach links directly into existing recording systems from a PDA phone. Both of these approaches allow recordings to be timestamped, often required for legal reasons. Recording directly onto mobile devices does provide a legally valid recording in many countries.

Digital Call Recorder

Digital lines cannot be recorded unless the call recording system can capture and decode the proprietary digital signalling, which some modern systems can. Sometimes a method is supplied with a digital PBX that can process the proprietary signal (usually a conversion box) before being channeled to a computer for recording. Alternatively a hardware adapter can be used on a telephone handset as the digital signal is converted at that point to analogue.

VoIP Recording is usually restricted to streaming media recorders or software developed by the softphone or IP PBX creator. There are also solutions which use packet capture technology to passively record VoIP phone calls on the LAN.

Call recording

Call recording is becoming increasingly important, with technology changing and working habits becoming more mobile. Addressing mobile recording is now the subject of many financial regulators' recommendations. It is also increasingly important to business continuity planning, especially for pandemic planning[citation needed].

The actual recording takes place on a recording system with software for the management of calls and security of recordings. Most call recording software applications rely on an analogue signal via either a call recording adapter or a telephony board.

Call recording software

Call recording software records telephone conversations over PSTN or VoIP in a digital audio file format. Call recording is distinct from call logging and tracking, which record details about the call but not the conversation; however, software may include both recording and logging functionality.