Recording consent
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NoteWorks records meetings from your own device, without joining a bot to the call. That is deliberate — bots are intrusive, they fail, and they turn every meeting into a negotiation about a participant nobody invited. It also means the other people in the room get no visual cue that a recording is running, and that is your responsibility to supply.
What the app does
- A recording indicator is visible while recording, on screen and in the Android notification shade.
- Meeting mode will not start until you confirm “everyone in the room knows this is being recorded”. That is one tap, and it is not a formality: it is the moment you are asserting something about the room.
- Transcripts mark what the transcriber was unsure of as
[inaudible]rather than guessing. A guessed word in someone else’s mouth is worse than a gap.
What the law might ask of you
Recording rules differ by country, by state and sometimes by the kind of conversation. This is guidance, not legal advice, and if the recording matters you should take advice about your own situation.
- One-party consent places, including much of the United States federally and most US states: your own consent is enough for a conversation you are part of.
- All-party consent places, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington and several others, and much of the EU: everyone in the conversation must agree first.
- Cross-border calls are frequently governed by the strictest rule that applies to any participant, not the most convenient one.
- Some workplaces and regulators impose their own rules on top, whatever the law allows.
What we suggest
- Say it out loud at the start, in words, and let it be in the recording.
- If anyone objects, stop. Delete the recording; the audio goes with it.
- Do not record a conversation someone has asked you not to record on the basis that the law in your state permits it. It will be true and it will not help.
Deleting a recording
Deleting a recording in NoteWorks removes the transcript, the summary and the audio file itself. The audio is deleted from object storage through the same transaction that removes the row, so a deletion cannot half-happen.