California statute
Cal. Penal Code § 632.7
Current through 2025–2026 Regular Session (leginfo weekly dump, 2026-07-12)
Part of Chapter 1.5: Invasion of Privacy, California Penal Code.
Full text of Cal. Penal Code § 632.7
Statutory text current through the 2025–2026 Regular Session (leginfo weekly dump, 2026-07-12). This publication reproduces the official statutory text; it is not the official statutes of the State of California.
(a) Every person who, without the consent of all of the parties to a communication, intercepts or receives and intentionally records, or assists in the interception or reception and intentional recordation of, a communication transmitted between two cellular radio telephones, a cellular radio telephone and a landline telephone, two cordless telephones, a cordless telephone and a landline telephone, or a cordless telephone and a cellular radio telephone, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If the person has been convicted previously of a violation of this section or of Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636, the person shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment. (b) This section shall not apply to any of the following: (1) Any public utility, or telephone company, engaged in the business of providing communications services and facilities, or to the officers, employees, or agents thereof, where the acts otherwise prohibited are for the purpose of construction, maintenance, conduct, or operation of the services and facilities of the public utility or telephone company. (2) The use of any instrument, equipment, facility, or service furnished and used pursuant to the tariffs of the public utility. (3) Any telephonic communication system used for communication exclusively within a state, county, city and county, or city correctional facility. (c) For purposes of this section, “telephone company” is defined in paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) of Section 638. (d) As used in this section, each of the following terms have the following meaning: (1) “Cellular radio telephone” means a wireless telephone authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to operate in the frequency bandwidth reserved for cellular radio telephones. (2) “Cordless telephone” means a two-way, low power communication system consisting of two parts, a “base” unit which connects to the public switched telephone network and a handset or “remote” unit, that are connected by a radio link and authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to operate in the frequency bandwidths reserved for cordless telephones. (3) “Communication” includes, but is not limited to, communications transmitted by voice, data, or image, including facsimile.
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