Law / United States / 
Montana
Privacy in Communications, Recording and Interception of Conversations
Mont. Code Ann. § 45-8-213(1)(c), (2), (3)
In force.
An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Criminal prosecution by the state; the section creates no civil action of its own.
- Obligation class
- Consent, Prohibition
What it requires
- Do not record a conversation with a hidden electronic or mechanical device without the knowledge of all parties; a warning of the recording given by any one person is enough, and once it is given either party may record.
- Do not purposely intercept an electronic communication, including a chat or other data sent by wire or radio, unless the persons involved were warned of the interception.
- Neither rule reaches a public official or employee acting in the performance of official duty; the recording rule also does not reach a person speaking at a public meeting or a health care facility's or health agency's recording of an emergency telephone call.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CM.AW-P1Mechanisms (e.g., notices, internal or public reports) for communicating data processing purposes, practices, associated privacy risks, and options for enabling individuals’ data processing preferences and requests are established and in place.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
A person convicted of recording without the knowledge of all parties, or of purposely intercepting an electronic communication, may be fined up to $500 or imprisoned in the county jail for up to 6 months, or both; the section's escalating penalties for a second or later conviction reach only the harassment and extortion offenses in subsections (1)(a) and (1)(b).
What this law does
Montana makes it an offense to knowingly or purposely record, or cause to be recorded, a conversation by a hidden electronic or mechanical device that reproduces a human conversation without the knowledge of all parties to it.
The recording offense does not reach a public official or employee recording in the performance of official duty, a person speaking at a public meeting, a health care facility's or health agency's recording of an emergency telephone call, or persons given warning of the recording; once one person gives that warning, either party may record.
Montana separately makes it an offense to purposely intercept an electronic communication, any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds or data by wire, radio or a similar system, except by a public official or employee in the performance of official duty or where the persons were given warning of the interception. A conviction of either offense is punishable by a fine of up to $500 or up to six months in the county jail, or both, and the section gives no civil action of its own.
The section may not be construed to impose liability on an interactive computer service for content provided by another person. The provisions this entry describes came into force on different days.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app records calls, records text chat, processes voice recordings or deploys a chatbot.
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