There are some legal issues, which have to be considered when planning to implement VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Incorporating or switching to VoIP technology for your organization’s voice communications, can raise technological as well as legal issues. Voice over IP technology has also enlarged security concerns because VoIP technologies have made it more complicated for the government to decide where a target is actually located when communications are being interrupted, and that creates a lot of new legal issues.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the United States are now making all VoIP companies which do not support E-911 services to supply a label warning to inform users that these services are not available. The FCC also requires all interconnected VoIP service providers to fulfill with requirements equivalent to the traditional phone system service providers.
The NSA (National Security Agency) is not authorized to tap American’s conversations without a warrant, but the VoIP doesn't help to trace the location of a caller or a receiver unlike the traditional phone system. As VoIP features encourage many organizations to adopt the VoIP technology, the line separating the NSA’s ability to spy on phone calls will only get blurrier.
In developing world, there are several countries that are threatened by the popularity of VoIP technology. For example, Panama is now taxing VoIP and in Guyana, VoIP telephone services are prohibited. It is also a criminal offence in Ethiopia to even offer VoIP telephone services.
In India, it is legal to use VoIP, but it is illegal to have VoIP gateways (which converts VoIP call to a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). In UAE, it is illegal to use VoIP services as well as the VoIP software websites are blocked.
In the Republic of Korea, only those VoIP service providers are allowed to offer VoIP services, which are registered with the government of the Republic of Korea.