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Telephony · Understand
There is no single period that applies to every company. The retention period follows from the reason you record: training, evaluation, quality improvement, or proving a transaction where a legal text provides for it. For recordings made in the workplace, the CNIL, France’s data protection authority, sets a benchmark of six months at most, unless a specific legal text or justification applies.
A recording contains the voice of an employee and that of the other party, often their names, sometimes sensitive information mentioned during the conversation. It is processing of personal data within the meaning of the GDPR. Two principles of Article 5 apply directly: data is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes, and it is kept for no longer than is necessary for those purposes.
The retention period is therefore not chosen first. It is derived from the purpose. A company that cannot say why it records cannot say how long it keeps recordings.
The CNIL’s guidance on listening to and recording calls in the workplace lists permitted purposes: employee training, employee evaluation, improving service quality and, in the limited cases provided for by a legal text, proof of a contract or transaction. The system must meet a recognized need and remain proportionate to the objective.
| Purpose | What needs to be kept | Who needs to listen |
|---|---|---|
| Training | A few selected calls, for the duration of a session or a training cycle | The trainer, the employee concerned |
| Evaluation and quality | The calls needed for an evaluation grid; the grid itself | The team leader or the quality department |
| Proof of a transaction | Calls that involve a commitment, where a legal text provides for it | The department managing contracts or disputes |
The same guidance sets limits. An employer may not set up a permanent or systematic listening or recording system, unless a specific legal text provides for it. Recording all calls to deter abusive behavior is not permitted: a recording triggered by the employee is considered less intrusive. Employees must be able to make personal calls on unrecorded lines, or switch recording off; the same applies to employee representatives in the exercise of their mandate.
Informing people comes before enabling recording.
Access must be limited to the departments concerned by the purpose, with authorizations and logging of the actions performed. In practice: few people have the right to listen, this right is separate from the right to make calls, and the list of authorized people is reviewed regularly. For Klytic Tel, implementation is described in Who can listen to recordings in Klytic Tel.
The CNIL’s guidance gives two benchmarks for recordings made in the workplace:
It also recommends a good practice: use the recordings within the following days, write up the analysis documents, then delete the recordings promptly. Six months is a ceiling, not a target.
These benchmarks do not cover every case. Some sectors have their own legal texts, which impose a longer or shorter period for calls involving a commitment. If your business is regulated, the sector rule takes precedence: check it with your DPO or legal advisor before setting your own.
The CNIL page used here dates from 2009 and is marked “obsolète, en cours de mise à jour” (obsolete, being updated). It remains the reference published by the authority on this subject as of the date it was consulted. Check whether a more recent version exists before finalizing your policy.
Two clocks coexist, and they must not be confused.
The retention period is your decision: how long the recording remains available for listening in the service. Backup retention is a technical measure taken by the operator: how long a copy of the entire service is kept so that it can be restored after an incident.
When you delete a recording, it disappears from the service. A copy may remain in the backups until they expire. This copy is not accessible to users; it is used only for a restore. Mention it in your notice to individuals and in your record of processing: it is more accurate than claiming immediate and complete deletion.
The CNIL states that permanent or systematic recording is not permitted, unless a specific legal text provides for it. Record the lines that have a purpose.
Yes, at the start of the call, with the possibility to object before the end of the conversation.
Only the people concerned by the purpose. See Who can listen to recordings in Klytic Tel.
On the phone platform, along with other traces of the call. See What a phone platform knows about your company.
Call recording is a Klytic Tel feature, available from the Basic Line upward. It is not enabled everywhere by default: you choose, with Klytic, the lines or queues where it serves a purpose. Call transcription and summaries are part of the Business Line; they are derived data, to be covered by your policy.
Recordings are kept on the phone server dedicated to your organization, in the chosen hosting zone or on your servers. The retention period is set according to your policy. Klytic does not set a legal period on your behalf and does not take the place of your DPO.
Telephony is backed up every day, with a retention of 30 days. A copy of a deleted recording may therefore remain in the backups for up to 30 days, without being accessible to users. A data processing agreement is provided at signing.
This page describes a general framework. It does not replace the advice of your DPO or legal advisor, nor the legal texts specific to your sector.
Legal status as of October 11, 2026. The retention benchmarks (six months for recordings, one year for analysis documents) come from the CNIL guidance “L’écoute et l’enregistrement des appels sur le lieu de travail” (Listening to and recording calls in the workplace), published in 2009 and flagged by the CNIL as obsolete and being updated. A sector-specific legal text may impose a different period.
Consulted in October 2026.
We prepare with you the recorded lines, the announcement to callers and the people authorized to listen.
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