The form
Take the form
The same text as a plain file, with the caveat above attached at the top so it survives being emailed on. Fill in the brackets in whatever you already write in.
Reuse this dataset anywhere, including commercially, with credit to Ringfully and a link back to this page. CC BY 4.0.
Three things not to do while filling it in. Do not pre-tick any box, because a box ticked in advance is not a positive indication. Do not collapse the three boxes into one, because granularity is exactly what the statute asks for here. And do not leave the retention period open: a missing period is a period your own announcement stops justifying after a few months.
When the written form is the right instrument
Use it where the announcement is not enough: an outbound call you started, a new purpose for a recording you already have, a matter where sensitive information is going to come up, or a contracted client who is going to be recorded routinely.
Why the brackets are empty
They are the parts only you can fill in, and they are deliberately not pre-filled with something plausible: an example that reads like an answer is an example somebody sends out as it stands.
The announcement is a different thing
For an ordinary inbound service call, what a caller hears is the instrument, not this sheet. That wording is further down the page.
What a valid consent has to carry
Five conditions, all at once. Consent has to be manifest, which means a real positive indication rather than the absence of an objection; free, so not tied to something the person cannot refuse; informed, so the person knows what is collected, by whom, and for how long; given for specific purposes, each one named; and requested for each of those purposes, in simple and clear terms, rather than in one block.
Two more rules apply when it is asked for in writing. The request is presented distinctly from any other information given to the person, and consent to the use of sensitive personal information has to be express. Consent that is not given in accordance with the law is without effect. Section 14, chapter P‑39.1.
The last two conditions matter most for a phone line, because quality assurance, training and evidence in a dispute are three purposes and not one. Consent obtained for the first does not cover the other two, and listing all three in one announcement is not a shortcut: it is the exact thing granularity rules out.
The recording announcement
This is the part a caller hears, and the only part most businesses have. It has to carry that recording is happening, the purpose it is happening for, and enough for the caller to decide whether to continue.
Weak, and the most common wording there is
It tells the caller nothing decidable: it neither confirms that recording is happening nor names why, and delivered in English first it undercuts the duty to serve in French.
Better, in French. This one stays in French whichever language you are reading: it is what the caller hears.
The same, in the English branch of your menu
The second confirms rather than hedges, names one purpose, and is shorter. If you record for more than one purpose, name them, and remember that separate purposes need separately obtained consent: for anything beyond an ordinary inbound service call, what you need is the written form below, not a longer sentence.
Where each one goes
The announcement goes after the greeting and before the menu: a caller should know before they start giving information, not after. Played in the wrong order it informs somebody who has already spoken.
It goes on the paths that actually record, not on all of them. An announcement on a call you do not record is simply inaccurate, and it is the kind of inaccuracy that undermines the rest of your policy.
It goes in French, with the English announcement living in the English branch rather than stacked in front of the French one. Telephone reception falls under the Charter of the French Language if you serve the public in Quebec, which is an obligation rather than a configuration option.
The written form goes wherever the file lives: in the contract, in the client record, or in the email that precedes the first recorded call. What matters is being able to find it again, because a consent you cannot produce is a consent you cannot demonstrate.
Questions people ask
Is there an official Law 25 consent form?
No. The Commission d'accès à l'information publishes model forms for the collection of biometric information and none for anything else, and the Act sets conditions a consent has to meet rather than a layout it has to follow. What is on this page is a template, not an approved document.
Does a recorded announcement count as consent?
It informs, which is a separate duty. Consent has to be manifest, free, informed and given for each specific purpose. Whether staying on the line amounts to consent depends on the call: an inbound call the person chose to make, with a real chance to hang up, is not the same as an outbound call you started.
Do I need separate consent for each purpose?
Yes. Section 14 says consent is requested for each of the purposes, in simple and clear terms. Quality assurance, training and evidence in a dispute are three purposes, so one box covering all three is the exact thing the rule exists to prevent.
How long should I keep a signed consent form?
The Act sets no period for the form itself. Consent is valid only for the time necessary to achieve the purposes it was requested for, and the recording is destroyed or anonymised once those purposes are accomplished. Keep the form for as long as you hold what it authorises: a consent you cannot produce is a consent you cannot demonstrate.
Does the consent have to be in French?
The announcement a caller hears does, if you serve the public in Quebec: telephone reception falls under the Charter of the French Language, and the English announcement belongs in the English branch of your menu rather than stacked behind the French one. For the written form, the safe practice is to hand it over in the language you are serving the person in.
Can I use this form as it stands?
No. The square brackets are yours to fill in and no lawyer has reviewed it. Do not pre-tick a box, do not collapse the three purposes into one, and do not leave the retention period open. Treat it as a starting point and change anything that does not describe what you actually do.
What the example does not settle
It does not decide your purposes. Nobody can do that for you, and a form that picks them has you consenting to purposes that are not yours. Nor does it turn an announcement into consent: an announcement is information, and whether staying on the line amounts to consent depends on the situation. An inbound call the person chose to make, with a real chance to hang up, is not the same thing as an outbound call you started.
On the product side: Ringfully stores a per-organisation recording announcement, you can edit it, and it is played on the call. In always mode the caller hears it before being connected. In the agent’s-choice mode nothing is said at the start, because nobody yet knows there will be a recording, and the announcement plays just after recording begins: that is the ordering to weigh if your notice has to precede every recorded second. And an empty field is silence. Nothing is said, the recording still runs, and the duty to inform is discharged by the sentence you write rather than by the field existing.
Further reading
Law 25, and what it asks of a business
Call-recording consent under Law 25, in detail
A description of what the statute asks, not legal advice, and a template still less so. Wording that satisfies two regimes at once is worth ten minutes with a Quebec-qualified adviser.