Call Recording Storage and Retention Policy

Call recordings accumulate quickly and require a thoughtful storage and retention strategy. A 5-minute call at G.711 quality produces approximately 3-4 MB of audio. An office with 20 active users recording all calls generates tens of gigabytes per month. Retention policy: define how long recordings are kept based on business need and legal requirements. Quality assurance: 30-90 days. Dispute resolution: 1-2 years. Financial services compliance: 5-7 years (varies by regulation). Automate deletion of recordings older than the retention period — many PBX platforms support auto-purge settings. Storage options: local NAS (low cost, requires management), cloud storage (scalable, higher cost), or provider-hosted storage (simplest, usually highest per-GB cost). Ensure recordings are backed up — they're often discoverable in legal proceedings and their loss can be damaging. Restrict access to recordings: managers and compliance officers should have access; general staff should not. Encrypt recordings at rest, especially if they contain sensitive customer information.