The California Supreme Court has sided with plaintiffs in their complaint against a bank that recorded telephone conversations that originated in Georgia but terminated in California. Georgia allows one-party consent to audio recording of telephone calls but California requires the permission of all parties.

Although Georgia and most other states permit taping of phone conversations as long as one person consents, Kearney and Levy argued that the bank’s actions violated California’s 39-year-old Invasion of Privacy Act, which — similar to 10 other states — prohibits the recording of any communication without the permission of all affected parties.

The SoCal Law Blog questions the application of the California court’s notion that this state’s privacy law is superior to others.