While the United States and the United Kingdom have made call recording much accessible to its citizens from the way they set their call recording legislations, it is entirely a different story in India. In this Asian country, call recording is strictly prohibited only with the exception that the call recording is approved by a higher authority which is either the Central Government or the State Government.
With these government agencies empowered to order telephone tapping through section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, this legislation will only come into existence if the call recording is performed to prevent a serious offence that involves national security or to deter terrorist and anti-national activities. Before 1999, telephone tapping was allowed to check for tax evasion or similar economic offences but in 1999, the government in India has decided to withdraw such a legislation in order to preserve the integrity of human rights.