Pen. Code, § 632.7 · Chapter 1.5. Invasion of Privacy
Pen. Code, § 632.7
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(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.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 27, Sec. 2. (SB 1272) Effective January 1, 2023.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=632.7.
- Text hash
- sha256 06cf642c02036aeebb7a5b690c05922ffd65a195b57fee7444bff37b3709d2e5
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 631Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632.5Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632.6Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 636Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 638Printed as Section 638
Cited by 11 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 632.7. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 629.88Printed as Section 631, 632.5, 632.6, or 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 631Printed as Section 632, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632Printed as Section 631, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632.5Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.6, 632.7, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 632.6Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.7, or 636
- Pen. Code, § 633Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 633.02Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 633.05Printed as Section 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 633.1Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, or 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 633.5Printed as Sections 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, and 632.7
- Pen. Code, § 634Printed as Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6, 632.7, or 636
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.