AI meeting notes: can you record your clients?
The call starts. A small bot joins as “Notetaker” and the meeting runs as usual. An hour later everyone receives a neat summary with action points. Nobody asked the client whether they wanted to be recorded. Was that allowed?
The short answer: if the tool records the conversation, everyone in it has to agree. Recording a private conversation you take part in without the others' consent is a criminal offence in Switzerland, and so is keeping or using the recording. The transcript, full of personal data, also sits with the tool's provider now.
Checked against the law on 30 September 2026
Did everyone agree?
- 1 year
The maximum custodial sentence for recording a private conversation you take part in without the others' consent, or for keeping, using or sharing such a recording (art. 179ter SCC). Prosecuted on complaint.
- 3 years
For recording a private conversation you're not part of without everyone's consent (art. 179bis SCC). Some note-takers can join meetings from your calendar even when nobody from your firm attends.
- Narrow exception
Calls may be recorded without consent only with emergency and rescue services, or in business calls about orders, instructions, bookings and similar transactions, and those recordings may serve only as evidence (art. 179quinquies SCC).
The checklist
0 of 10 checked
AI summaries built into your meeting app, bots that join calls, phone apps that record meetings in the room. Ask the team: some are switched on with a single click.
Many tools record the audio to write the transcript. If yours does, the recording rules apply, whatever the tool calls itself.
Say that the call will be recorded and summarised, with which tool, and let people say no. A consent given once for all future calls is easy to forget.
People who know in advance can object before the call, and nobody is surprised by a bot in the room.
Some note-takers join meetings from your calendar, including ones you don't attend. Recording a conversation you're not part of is the more serious offence (art. 179bis SCC).
Which company stores them, in which country, for how long. Transcripts are full of personal data, and sending them abroad needs a legal basis (arts. 16 and 17 FADP).
A provider that records and transcribes for you is a processor: that needs a contract, and it may only do what you could do yourself (art. 9 FADP). Check whether recordings are used to train its models.
Data must be destroyed or anonymised once the purpose no longer needs it (art. 6 FADP). Keep the notes, not the recording.
Disputes, HR conversations, health matters: take notes by hand. If you record one anyway, a private tool run in Switzerland changes where the audio goes, not the consent it needs.
Which tools, which meetings, what to say at the start, when to delete. A rule people know is a rule they follow.
Ticked them all? Rules that exist only in your head don't stop anyone. The kit has the rule on one page, and the words to say at the start of a call, ready to paste. Get the kit
Which meetings can be recorded?
The kit sorts six kinds of meetings. Two of them:
- An internal meeting where everyone agreed at the start
- Yes; delete the audio once the notes are checked.
- A webinar you host
- Explain what is recorded and why; get consent for non-public contributions such as questions, or keep attendees' microphones and video out of the recording.
- A first call with a prospective client
- In the kit
- A client meeting about a dispute
- In the kit
- An HR conversation with an employee
- In the kit
- A call where one participant says no
- In the kit
What the Criminal Code says
Recording a private conversation you take part in without the consent of the others is punishable by up to one year's custodial sentence or a monetary penalty, and so is keeping, using or sharing a recording made that way (art. 179ter SCC). Recording a private conversation of others without everyone's consent is punishable by up to three years (art. 179bis SCC). Both are prosecuted only on complaint.
The transcript is personal data
Names, opinions, figures, what someone promised: a transcript holds all of it. Handing it to a provider without the conditions of article 9 paragraphs 1 and 2, or sending it abroad without the protection of article 16 and outside the exceptions of article 17, can be fined up to CHF 250,000, imposed on the person responsible for intentional breaches, on complaint (art. 61 FADP).
What works in practice
Ask at the start, record only when everyone agrees, keep the notes and delete the audio, and keep sensitive meetings off the recorder. For client meetings, a note-taker run in Switzerland keeps the transcript in Switzerland.
Where does your firm stand?
The self-check takes two minutes and says which first step fits. Or talk it through in a free 15-minute call.
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Your situation
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- 5–10 min
What's possible
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- 10–15 min
The next step
A test on your own documents, an assessment, or nothing yet.
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