Call recordings, transcriptions, and summaries can be incredibly useful, and even critical, in many business contexts. However, it's crucial to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations. In the eyes of the law, individual users are always responsible for adhering to the law, even when they're using a software tool in service of the act of recording. This includes understanding and adhering to specific legal requirements in your region and those of other meeting participants. Proper notification and consent are essential to respect privacy and maintain trust among all parties involved.

In this article, we’ll provide tips on different ways to help you comply with consent and notification requirements, ensuring that your call recordings are both legal and respectful of everyone involved. We’ll cover how Fellow notifies meeting participants about the Copilot recording the call, both prior to and during the meeting. Additionally, we’ll discuss what steps to take if a participant does not consent to being recorded, and share best practices to further safeguard your recording practices. These include implementing consent disclaimers and strategies for admitting the Copilot once all attendees have joined. By following these guidelines, you can ensure a smoother and more compliant recording process.

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If the auto-record feature has been configured for this meeting, you'll see an indication within your Fellow calendar via the My Week page (A). Google Calendar users with the Fellow chrome extension will also be see the event description (B).

Note: if the Copilot is manually invited to join this call, this will not appear.

A

B

First and foremost, the Fellow Copilot will not record your call unless it is admitted entry by a participant or host. Once the Copilot has been admitted, all present attendees will see 1) the Copilot appear as a participant, and 2) a message explaining who invited the Copilot to join and that the call is now being recorded.

⬅️ Message for all present attendees

For meeting participants who are in your Fellow workspace, you'll also see an indication within your Fellow note that the call is being recorded:

If you'd like to remove the Copilot from your call, you can either remove the Copilot as a participant (A) or stop the recording from within your Fellow note (B).

A

Remove the Copilot as an attendee

B

Click Rec to stop recording

Confirm you'd like to stop the recording

If you're looking to add additional precautions, here are a few extra tips to try:

There are a few ways that you can implement consent disclaimers. Some organizations choose to add a note to their calendar description, while others will email participants prior to a meeting notifying them that the call will be recorded.

💡 Tip: Configure a pre-meeting reminder through Fellow's automations to automatically notifying attendees on a per note series basis:

Another great best practice adopted by teams using call recorders has been to wait until all attendees who will be joining the call have been admitted. This ensures that all attendees see the Copilot join and can object if they do not consent to being recorded.

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