Recording Laws: Is It Legal to Record a Meeting or Call?

A plain-English guide to the consent laws that govern recording conversations, calls and video meetings — so you can use a recorder responsibly, wherever you and the people you meet with are.

The one idea that matters most: consent

Almost every recording law in the world comes down to a single question: who has to agree before you can record? There are two answers.

Most common

One-party consent

Only one person in the conversation needs to agree — and because you are a participant, that person can be you. This is the US federal baseline and the rule in most countries.

Stricter

All-party (two-party) consent

Everyone must agree before you record. "Two-party" is a misnomer — in a five-person meeting, all five must consent. Recording without it can be a crime.

The golden rule: when in doubt, announce that you are recording at the start of the meeting and wait for agreement. A clear disclosure satisfies most laws, turns silence into implied consent in many places, and is simply good manners. It is the single most effective thing you can do.

A few terms you will run into

Wiretapping / interception — capturing a communication while it is in transit (a phone line, an electronic transmission) using a device.
Eavesdropping — secretly recording a private in-person conversation. Most laws are only triggered when a recording device is used.
Expectation of privacy — most laws only protect conversations the participants reasonably expected to be private. A closed-door meeting is protected; a speaker addressing a public room generally is not.
In-person vs. phone vs. video — many laws treat these differently. A place can be one-party for phone calls but all-party for in-person talk. Video calls usually follow the phone-call rule.

United States

Federal law (the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2511) sets a one-party consent floor: as a participant, you can record — unless you do so to commit a crime or a harmful act. But that is only a floor. A minority of states impose stricter all-party rules for recordings made in their borders, and those rules win.

States that commonly require all-party consent:

CaliforniaConnecticut*DelawareFloridaIllinoisMarylandMassachusettsMichigan*MontanaNevada*New HampshireOregon*PennsylvaniaWashington

* Nuance applies. Connecticut, Nevada and Oregon apply different rules to phone calls versus in-person conversations. Michigan’s statute reads like all-party consent, but its courts have long treated recording by a participant as effectively one-party — the question has never been fully settled by its Supreme Court. Hawaii and Maine are one-party except when recording in a private place.

The cross-state trap: when participants are in different states, it is genuinely unsettled which law applies — courts disagree. The accepted safe practice is to assume the strictest state’s law governs and get everyone’s consent. Because remote meetings routinely span states, treat all-party consent as your default for any call that might include someone in the states above.

Penalties are real and run on two tracks. Federally, illegal recording can mean up to five years in prison and civil damages of at least $10,000. California, the most litigated state, adds civil damages of the greater of $5,000 per violation or three times actual damages.

Around the world

Below is a high-level summary of how some major jurisdictions treat recording by a participant. Even where recording is allowed, storing and sharing the recording is usually governed separately by data-protection law.

European Union (GDPR)

Consent / inform

There is no single EU recording law. National privacy law applies on top of the GDPR, which treats a person’s voice as personal data. You generally need a lawful basis, must inform people, and covert recording is almost always problematic. A narrow "purely personal" exemption can apply to private use, but it disappears the moment a recording is shared or used for business.

United Kingdom

One-party (personal)

Covertly recording a conversation you take part in, for your own personal use, is generally legal. Businesses may record for defined purposes, but the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 still require a lawful basis, privacy notices and sensible retention, enforced by the ICO.

Germany

All-party (criminal)

Section 201 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime to record someone’s non-public spoken words without consent — even if you are a participant. Penalties reach up to three years’ imprisonment. Do not assume the US "I’m on the call" rule applies here.

France

All-party (criminal)

Penal Code Article 226-1 prohibits recording private spoken words without consent, applying to participants and outsiders alike, with penalties up to one year and a €45,000 fine. Consent can be presumed if you record openly and no one objects.

Spain

One-party (participant)

Constitutional Court case law holds that recording a conversation you participate in does not violate the secrecy of communications. You may record as a participant; how you then store and share the recording is still governed by data-protection law.

Italy

One-party (participant)

Italy’s Supreme Court confirms a participant may record a conversation they are part of without others’ consent. Recording a conversation you are not part of can be a crime, and sharing recordings is still constrained by GDPR.

Canada

One-party

Criminal Code section 184 lets a participant — or anyone with one party’s consent — record a private communication. Recording a conversation you are not part of is a crime, and workplace policy may still forbid recording even where the Code allows it.

Australia

Varies by state

It varies sharply. NSW, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT generally require all-party consent even for participants. Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory allow a participant to record — but publishing or distributing that recording without consent is usually a separate offence.

India

One-party (evolving)

A participant generally may record, though non-consensual recording raises privacy concerns and some High Courts have ruled such recordings inadmissible. A 2025 Supreme Court ruling held that secretly recorded spousal phone calls are admissible in matrimonial cases — a significant, recent shift.

Japan

One-party

No criminal eavesdropping statute applies to private actors, so a participant may record a phone or in-person conversation without telling the other party, and such recordings are commonly admitted as evidence.

Singapore

One-party / PDPA

An individual may generally record a conversation they are part of. The Personal Data Protection Act governs how organisations collect, use and disclose recordings, requiring notification, consent and purpose limitation.

Brazil

LGPD (consent)

There is no simple one-party rule. Recordings of identifiable people are personal data under the LGPD, which generally requires a lawful basis (often explicit consent), transparency and purpose limitation, with the controller bearing the burden of proving valid consent.

How to record responsibly, anywhere

You do not need to memorise the law of every country to stay on the right side of it. Behave as if all-party consent is required, and you will comply almost everywhere:

Always announce it. Say at the start of every meeting that you are recording, transcribing and summarising. This one habit handles the majority of situations.
Get an explicit "yes" when stakes are higher. In US all-party states, across the EU, and on any cross-border call, a clear verbal or written agreement beats a silent assumption.
Use platform notifications, but not alone. Zoom, Teams and Google Meet show recording banners or badges. They help, but may not satisfy strict jurisdictions — still announce it verbally.
Know business is held to a higher bar. Personal recordings get more leeway; business recordings trigger data-protection duties like privacy notices and retention limits.
Store and share carefully. Even where recording is legal, distributing a recording can be a separate offence. Limit who can access it, keep it only as long as needed, and never repurpose it beyond what you disclosed.

Where MeetingMemo fits in

MeetingMemo records and transcribes your meetings entirely on your Mac. Your audio never touches our servers, there is no account, and nothing is uploaded unless you choose to enable it. That is a strong answer to the privacy question — your conversations stay yours.

But on-device processing does not, by itself, make a recording legal. The consent rules on this page govern the act of recording other people regardless of where the audio is stored. MeetingMemo helps you do the right thing: it never starts a recording on its own — every recording needs your explicit confirmation — which makes announcing and disclosing a natural part of the flow.

Get MeetingMemo for Mac

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to record a meeting on my Mac?

In most of the world, yes — if you are a participant in the conversation. The United States (federally), Canada, Japan and most other countries use "one-party consent", meaning your own consent as a participant is enough. But a significant minority of places — including roughly a dozen US states, Germany and France — require every participant to consent. The safe rule everywhere is to announce that you are recording at the start of the meeting.

What is the difference between one-party and all-party consent?

Under one-party consent, only one person in the conversation needs to agree to the recording — and since you are a participant, that can be you. Under all-party (often called two-party) consent, every single participant must agree before you record. "Two-party" is a misnomer: in a five-person meeting, all five must consent.

Which US states require everyone to consent to a recording?

The states most commonly treated as all-party consent are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Several of these have nuances — for example, Connecticut, Nevada and Oregon apply different rules to phone calls versus in-person conversations, and Michigan case law treats participant recording as effectively one-party. If anyone in your meeting is in one of these states, get everyone’s consent.

What happens on a call where participants are in different states or countries?

This is the single biggest trap. When participants are in different jurisdictions, courts disagree about which law applies, and the outcome can depend on where each person sits and where any lawsuit is filed. The accepted safe practice is to assume the strictest applicable law governs and to obtain consent from everyone.

Does recording on-device instead of in the cloud make it legal?

No. Where your audio is processed is a privacy question, not a consent question. MeetingMemo recording and transcribing entirely on your Mac means your data never touches our servers, but the laws on this page still govern the act of recording other people. You still need the appropriate consent.

Do Zoom, Teams and Google Meet recording notifications make me compliant?

They help, but do not rely on them alone. Built-in banners and badges signal that a recording is happening, which supports an implied-consent argument, but a generic banner may not satisfy strict all-party jurisdictions. Announce verbally that you are recording and, where the stakes are higher, ask for an explicit "yes".