Overtalk

Tell people before you record a meeting.

A practical guide for anyone who records calls to take notes, with or without a meeting bot. The legal summaries were checked on against the linked sources. They are not legal advice; rules depend on where everyone in the call is and on your organisation.

The short answer

Tell everyone before the first word is recorded, say where the recording and transcript go, and ask whether they agree. In Germany, recording a conversation that is not public without permission can be a criminal offence under § 201 of the Criminal Code, with up to three years in prison or a fine. Under the GDPR, a work recording of identifiable people also needs a legal basis and must come with information about what happens to it. In the United States, federal law needs the consent of one party, but several states, including California, need the consent of everyone in a confidential conversation. A note-taker that records without a bot still records: the lawsuits against Otter and Granola now in US courts are about people who say they were never told.

What to say

Name what is recorded and where it goes, then ask. These are the sentences Overtalk offers before it records, with a question added: a notice tells people, but where the law asks for consent, you need their answer.

Everything stays on your computer
I'm recording this call to take notes. It is recorded and transcribed on my computer; nothing is sent to a cloud service. Is everyone OK with that?
Notes written by a service, here Privatemode
I'm recording this call to take notes. It is recorded on my computer, and the transcript is encrypted before it is sent to Privatemode to write the notes. Is everyone OK with that?
Auf Deutsch, alles bleibt auf dem Computer
Ich zeichne dieses Gespräch auf, um Notizen zu machen. Es wird auf meinem Computer aufgezeichnet und transkribiert; nichts wird an einen Cloud-Dienst gesendet. Sind Sie alle damit einverstanden?

Name every service that receives audio or text. If a cloud service transcribes the call, say so; "it stays private" is not a description of where it goes.

When and how

  1. Before recording starts. Consent given after the first minutes does not cover what was already recorded.
  2. Wait for each person's answer. Do not treat silence as agreement; someone may not have heard, or may not feel able to object in front of others.
  3. In writing and aloud. Paste the sentence into the call chat and say it, so people who joined by phone or arrive late hear it too. Repeat it for latecomers.
  4. In the invite for recurring meetings, so people can raise concerns before the call rather than in front of everyone.
  5. If someone objects, stop. Take notes by hand for that meeting. Do not record "just the others".
  6. Keep a record of how people were told, in case anyone asks later. Overtalk saves it with the meeting (see below).
  7. Agree what happens next: who gets the notes, how long the recording is kept and when it is deleted.

What the law asks

Germany

§ 201 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to record "the non-public spoken word of another" without authorisation, punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine; using or sharing such a recording is covered too. Meetings at work are usually not public, so in practice you need everyone's agreement before you record. Data protection law applies on top (see the GDPR below). In companies with a works council, introducing a recording or transcription tool usually needs its agreement, because the council has a say over technical systems that can monitor employees (§ 87(1) no. 6 of the Works Constitution Act).

The EU: GDPR

A recording of identifiable people at work is personal data. You need a legal basis for it (Article 6), and the people recorded must be told who is recording, why, where it goes and how long it is kept (Article 13). The exemption for purely personal or household activity (Article 2(2)(c)) does not cover work meetings. Voice data used to recognise who is speaking can be biometric data (Article 4(14)), which Article 9 allows only under specific conditions, such as explicit consent.

The United States

Federal law allows a recording when one party to the conversation consents (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)). Several states require the consent of every party; California's Penal Code § 632, for example, covers confidential communications. When people join from different states, follow the strictest rule that applies. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press keeps a state-by-state guide.

No bot is not a loophole

Tools that record from your own computer, Overtalk included, leave no participant tile in the call, so nobody sees a recording sign. That makes telling people your job. Two US cases show the risk; both are allegations, not findings:

How Overtalk keeps the notice

Before Overtalk records a meeting, it shows the sentence above, worded for where this meeting's audio and transcript will actually go. You choose Copy & record, Read it aloud & record or Record without notice. The choice is saved before any audio is captured, so a skipped notice is recorded as skipped. It appears in the meeting's details and in every export: PDF, DOCX, Markdown, text and JSON. Both sentences can be edited in Privacy settings, and "Confirm participant notice" makes the choice required for every recording.

Where Overtalk processes a meeting · Build the Linux preview

Sources