Woman reveals why you should mute every time you are on hold with customer service and people are baffled

We keep reading about our digital devices getting hacked or third parties eavesdropping on our confidential conversations and stealing personal data present on our mobile phones. It's only natural for people to feel paranoid about receiving calls from random numbers or customer care services. A woman named Allison, who goes by @alliebabie on TikTok, shared an important public service announcement about the potential dangers of dialing any customer service number.

In the video, Allison referred to the kind of ominous pre-recorded message that plays before a customer service employee picks up the phone to respond. “When you hear the message, ‘This is recorded for quality assurance,’ that’s for when you’re on hold too. So if you’re on hold with a company and it’s playing the little hold music, the company can hear that too on the recording,” the TikTok user informed her viewers. "It just records the entire time you’re on the line, so if your mic is on, they’re still recording," she added in the caption of her video.

While the information wasn't new to many of Allison's viewers, the PSA took some by surprise. @bugsandhissesxo shared a cartoon human skull emoji and wrote, "...I've taken showers while on long holds." @justanotherboymom2 added, "So basically, many companies have heard me yelling at my kids to put clothes on." @raine_cloud808 chimed in, "I just complain the whole time... and they probably hear my kids crying and fighting." @frozenkas commented, "Welp. Today I learned more than one call representative has heard me pee."

Many shared their own experiences. @areemdee93 wrote, "I did mute myself during that the other day and when the person came on after 45 minutes, they didn't even give me enough time to unmute before they hung up on me." @mandielin87 mentioned, "They can also hear the automated phone call of the portion. I’ve been listening to those calls for over 12 years." @eriidaniellee wondered, "Oh so they can hear me talking to my husband about how it’s the 9th time I’ve called them for the same issue? No wonder legal got in touch with me and fixed it." ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

A First Amendment lawyer at Ballard Spahr, Steve Zansberg, spoke to ABC Action News about the recorded calls and their potential threats. “On-hold portion of the call could be used against someone, whether or not the recording could be used lawfully or whether the mere recording of that information is lawful, is an open question,” Zansberg told the outlet. There might be legal ambiguities in this, but millions of customer service calls are still monitored every year. "People should be very careful when they’re speaking with the company after receiving an initial notice that this call may be recorded for training purposes or otherwise,” he added. ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ

According to the news outlet, companies record and monitor employees' calls and conversations for various reasons. This is mostly done to monitor employee behaviors. Sometimes, companies monitor calls to look for irregularities with the phone representative while maintaining customer service. 

You can follow Allison (@alliebabie) on TikTok for more videos on lifestyle.