GB2415108A

GB2415108A - Anonymous telephone call recording system

Info

Publication number: GB2415108A
Application number: GB0412674A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David James Hume
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-06-07
Filing date: 2004-06-07
Publication date: 2005-12-14
Also published as: GB0412674D0

Abstract

The disclosed system provides a telephone gateway 10 on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 30 for recording telephone conversations onto a server 12. A first user 20 establishes a connection to the gateway by dialling the telephone number of the gateway. The first user sends the destination telephone number of a second user to the gateway via a sequence of DTMF tones. At the start of the call, the gateway issues a unique reference number to the first user that will identify the recording at a later date and allow retrieval of the recording. The gateway is adapted to further dial the destination number of the second user and bridge the two call sections and record the content of the call. Revenue for the service may be raised via the cost of dialling into the gateway. Therefore, no subscription to any service is required beyond paying for the call to the gateway.

Description

Anonymous telephone call recording system l

Background

There are many different recording devices available to people wishing to record both sides of a telephone conversation. For years a tape recorder connected to the telephone has sufficed, but such recordings require special equipment at the caller's end and are not tamper-proof. US patent US5867793 describes a built-in, cellular telephone message recorder. US patent US5778052 describes a method and system for storing messages for later forwarding when a call goes unanswered. GB patent GB2389736 describes forwarding session data for mortorung/recording. US patent US6690950 describes a data recording system for storing as data the contents of telephone calls made by internal telephones and by mobile telephones having memory card data storage function.

WO03039117 describes a telecommunications data capture system, while CA2199312 describes a telephone call transcription with electronic delivery.

There exist conventional systems, known as telephone gateways, which accept a call from a user, followed by DMTF dial tones that indicate a final destination number that the user wishes to call. The gateway service then makes the call to the destination number - often at a rate cheaper than direct connection to the called number Other developments have enabled the development of hosted recording services, known within the industry as "Call Forward and Record services". Such services are aimed at companies or individuals who need to record outbound calls by offering a telephone gateway that records the call. Examples of companies that offer 'hosted call recording' or 'network level recording' as it is sometimes referred to are referenced by the following URLs: http://www. tel-e-log.co.uk/; http://www.ukdatait.co.uk/, http://www.opaltelecom.co. uk/; and http://www.voicelog.com.

Much of the mechanisms used above are described in US patent application US20020067810 and associated international application W002093874 (now withdrawn) entitled "System and method for telephone call recording and recorded call retrieval." In all cases described above the means by which call recordings are stored and referenced for later retrieval is by way of a pre-registered account. A user creates an account (normally via a web page) where various options such as the number(s) from which they will be calling can be set The user is then issued with a Personal Identification Number (PIN). Once the account has been registered the user may make calls via a gateway number on the PSTN. The account is identified either from the calling number and Caller Line Identity (CLI) or by quoting the PIN and the number they wish to cal] and record. Such recorded calls are stored and referenced via the account page or by calling the gateway.

This mechanism has particular problems. The user must already have set up the account before making the call to be recorded and must have web access or spend time talking to an operator in order to do this. This mechanism infringes the user s right to privacy as the account operator can listen to the calls and can identify who made them. It thus jeopardizes the service status as a common carrier as statutorily defined. For the service to be deemed a common carrier the service must provide indiscriminate service, available at uniform rates to anyone.

The invention described here provides a means for recording 2 call anonymously.

Description of the invention

The present invention seeks to avoid the need to pre-register for the recording service by issuing a unique number to the caller that identifies the recording about to be made. This number is then used to retrieve the recording at a later date. In order to maintain privacy it must be impossible to guess suitable values for the reference number, so certain parts of the reference number are chosen at random. In a further variation either the calling number or the called number can also be part of this reference value thus providing a shorter and more memorable identifier.

The system includes multiple telephone gateways 10, of which only one is shown in Figure 1. The gateway 10 has an interface 11, that can accept and initiate at least two simultaneous telephone calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 30. As is conventional, the gateway has at least one telephone number. In addition, the gateway 10 includes a computer, in the form of a server 12 which contains as much disk storage as is required.

A user is able to access the functionality of the system from any telephone handset 20.

Specific software runs on the server 12 within the gateway 10, and is able to interact with the PSTN interface 11. Such interaction includes receiving the CLI of the calling number if available, answering and initiating calls, playing pre-recorded messages and recording calls by storing a digital representation of the voice call on disk. Such servers are commonly used as digital voicemail systems.

In one preferred embodiment of the service, when the telephone number associated with the gateway 10 is called the server 12 uses the PSTN interface to determine the CLI of the handset 20 and if present it answers the call. The server then uses the PSTN interface to play a recorded message asking if the caller wishes to record or retrieve a call such responses being indicated by pressing keys on the handset which sends the value as a DMTF tone. In an alternative mechanism different telephone numbers could be called to distinguish between the recording and retrieving functions.

If the caller has chosen to record a call then the system creates a reference number that is unique from other numbers allocated to the calling number and announces this to the caller who must remember it. Such numbers would be at least four digits chosen at random. The system then further instructs the caller to send the telephone number of the called party as DMTF tones. Once done the system uses the other PSTN interface to call the number so specified and bridges the two calls, recording the ring time, pre-recorded message if relevant, DTMF selection and voice content on disk in a file identified by the CLI of the caller and the unique reference number. Other information such as the length and time of the call can also be stored.

If the user chooses to retrieve (listen to) a call then the system prompts for the reference number and attempts to locate the file using this number and the CLI. If located then the recording is played back. Other options are also available at this point such as deleting the recording. There is no account to be set up and the service is paid for by tariffs for calling the gateway numbers.

In another embodiment of the service, the caller wishes to remain completely anonymous and does not provide a CLI instead the unique reference number is used to retrieve the recording, in this case the reference number provided is larger (more than eight digits) as it must be unique to all users of the system. When a call is to be retrieved in such a system only three attempts per call are allowed to enter the correct reference number. Again there is no account to be set up and the service is paid for by the telephone tariff. A further advantage of this embodiment is that the recording may be retrieved from a telephone number different from that used to make the recording.

In a further embodiment of the system there are two different telephone numbers provided that can be used to distinguish recording and retrieval requests.

In a further embodiment of the system a recording can be accessed via a web page quoting the reference number and optionally the calling number.

Claims

Claims 1. A communications recording system, comprising: a telephone

handset; a gateway device, that runs on a computer system with associated disk storage and has at least two PSTN connections which are under software control, and | which allows those connections to be bridged; wherein the handset is used to establish a telephone connection to the destination number via the gateway device by dialling the telephone number of a PSTN connection of the gateway device and then sending the destination number to the gateway device as a | sequence of DTMF tones, and wherein the gateway is adapted to respond to the handset by issuing a unique reference number to the caller that will | identify the recording at a later date, and wherein finally the gateway is adapted to dial the destination number, bridge the two calls and record the content of the call.
2. A communications playback system, comprising: | a telephone handset; a gateway device, that runs on a computer system with associated disk storage and has at least one PSTN connection which is under | software control; wherein the handset is used to retrieve a previously recorded call as described in Claim 1 by means of dialling the telephone number of the PSTN connection of the gateway device and then sending a unique reference number as a sequence of DTMF tones.
3. A recording system as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the telephone handset issues its own phone number by means of the Caller Line Identity mechanism to the gateway such phone number being noted as part of the recording
4. A communications playback system, comprising: | a telephone handset; a gateway device, that runs on a computer system with associated disk storage and has at least one PSTN connection which is under | software control; wherein the handset is used to retrieve a previously recorded call as described in Claim 3 by means of dialling the telephone number of the PSTN connection of the gateway device and then sending its own telephone number via Calling Line Identity and Men a unique reference number as a sequence of DTMF tones, both such values being used to identify the recording to be played.
5. A communications playback system, comprising: a web browser connected to the Internet, a gateway device that runs on a computer system with associated disk storage and provides the functionality of a web server onto the Intemet1 wherein the browser is used to retrieve a previously recorded call as described in Claun 1 or Claim 3 providing the unique reference number and optionally the calling number as a way of identifying the recording to be played.