Meetings that are better not recorded

Some meetings shouldn't go through an AI note taker at all. Leaving them out is a decision you make before the meeting, not something you fix afterwards, because once audio is uploaded you've lost some control over it.

What you need to decide first

• A short written list of meeting types you won't record.
• A named person who can say yes or no when it's unclear.
• A way to take notes by hand, or a human note taker, for those meetings.
• A habit of checking your tool's settings so it doesn't join every calendar event by itself.

Meetings to think twice about

These are examples, not a full list. For any of them, think about whether the people involved would be comfortable, and whether the content is something you'd be happy to see leaked.

Legal advice. Talks with your lawyer may be covered by legal professional privilege. In the US, attorney-client privilege is described as a client's right to refuse to disclose, and to stop others disclosing, confidential communications between the client and the attorney¹. The same source calls it one of the oldest privileges for confidential communications¹. Whether a recording held by a third-party tool affects that protection is a legal question. Ask your lawyer before you record. Other countries have their own versions of this rule.

Staff matters. Performance reviews, disciplinary talks, pay, health, grievances and terminations. These involve personal information about one person, and the person may be upset. Employment rules apply, such as Fair Work in Australia or the Department of Labor in the US. Check them, or ask an employment lawyer.

Health information. Health businesses should use AI note takers for front-desk and admin work only. Don't record clinical conversations. For anything else that touches a person's health, skip the tool.

Client or customer private details. Financial hardship, personal circumstances, identity documents, account numbers read aloud, passwords. Any of these may be spoken in the middle of a normal call.

Money and security detail. Reading out card numbers, bank details or login codes puts them into a transcript that gets stored and shared. Pause the recording or leave it off.

Anything where someone has said no. If one person objects, respect it. It costs you a few minutes of note-taking.

Meetings with people in other places. Recording rules vary. In the United States, for example, laws differ by state². The one source we saved is about telephone calls, and it says that in New Zealand recording a phone call without telling the other person is usually considered unfair². Rules for in-person and video meetings may differ. See the consent basics.

Why sensitive material matters more

Recordings and transcripts count as personal information. New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner lists recordings among its examples³. The same site has a section on working with sensitive personal information³. The details are different in each country, but the idea is shared: some information needs more care.

An AI tool also adds a copy. Your transcript, the summary and any shared link are now in several places. To trace them, work through the questions on who holds the files.

What to do instead

• Take notes by hand or on a laptop, and write the minutes yourself.
• Record only part of the meeting. Start after the sensitive topic, or stop before it, and say so out loud.
• Record the meeting but remove the sensitive part before you share. This needs care, because the original may still be stored. Check where.
• Use a human note taker who's bound by your confidentiality rules.
• Move the sensitive topic to a separate conversation that isn't recorded.

When you stop or start a recording, say so. Try "I'm pausing the recording for this item." That leaves a record in the audio and tells people what's happening.

Write the rule down

A page of rules is enough. Include:

• The meeting types that aren't recorded.
• Who decides in unclear cases.
• How to tell people when a recording is on.
• Who can access recordings and for how long.

Share it with staff, and update it when you change tools. For anything touching law, privacy or employment, the official source or your lawyer outranks this page. The AI summary also needs a human check before anyone relies on it. The how-it-works page explains why.