What is the difference between one-party and all-party consent?

Under one-party (single-party) consent, only one person in the conversation — which can be you — needs to agree to the recording. Under all-party (sometimes called two-party) consent, everyone being recorded must consent. US federal law and most US states follow one-party consent; about a dozen states require all-party consent.

Is it legal to record a Zoom or Teams call?

It depends on where the participants are. In one-party-consent regions you may generally record a call you are part of; in all-party-consent regions you need everyone's consent. When participants are in different places, the safest approach is to follow the strictest applicable rule and simply tell everyone you are recording. This is general information, not legal advice.

Does using a local, on-device notetaker change the law?

No. Consent laws apply to the act of recording regardless of whether the audio is processed on your device or in the cloud. Processing locally reduces data-protection and storage risk, but you still need a lawful basis and, where required, consent to record.

Is it legal to record a meeting? Consent laws, explained

Short answer: usually yes, if you do it right — but "right" depends entirely on where the people on the call are. The rules come down to a single question: how many people in the conversation have to agree before you can record it?

This is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and vary by jurisdiction and situation. For anything consequential, confirm the current rules for your location — and the other participants' — or talk to a qualified lawyer.

The core concept: one-party vs all-party consent

Almost every recording law sorts into one of two buckets:

One-party (single-party) consent. Only one party to the conversation needs to agree — and since you're a party, that can be you. You may generally record a conversation you're part of.
All-party consent (often loosely called "two-party"). Everyone being recorded must consent. Recording without that can be a crime or a civil wrong.

The twist: recording a conversation you are not part of (eavesdropping) is generally illegal almost everywhere, regardless of which bucket applies.

How the major regions compare

Region	General rule
United States (federal)	One-party consent
United States (states)	Most are one-party; about a dozen require all-party — commonly cited: California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Washington (and others). For interstate calls, follow the strictest state's rule.
United Kingdom	Recording for your own personal use is generally allowed without consent; sharing or using others' recordings triggers UK GDPR obligations, and business use needs a lawful basis and notice.
European Union	A voice recording is personal data under GDPR. You need a lawful basis (often consent) and must be transparent; several member states add their own rules.
Canada	One-party consent under the Criminal Code if you're part of the conversation; commercial handling of the recording is governed by PIPEDA (or provincial equivalents).
Australia	Varies by state/territory under listening- and surveillance-device laws; several require all-party consent for private conversations.
India	No explicit all-party-consent statute; recording a conversation you're part of is generally not itself criminal, but the right to privacy and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 govern how you process and share others' data.

A high-level summary that simplifies real statutes and case law; use it to know when to check, not as the final word.

The cross-border problem

Remote meetings scramble the map. If you're in a one-party state and a colleague is in an all-party state, which law applies? There's genuine legal uncertainty here, and courts have gone different ways. The practical answer almost every compliance team lands on is the same, and it's beautifully simple:

Just tell everyone you're recording. Verbal notice at the top of the call, or a line in the invite, satisfies the strictest consent rule and removes the ambiguity. If anyone objects, you don't record. Done.

A practical checklist for recording meetings

Announce it. Say "I'm going to record this for notes — any objections?" at the start. Silence after a clear announcement is widely treated as implied consent, but an explicit "yes" is better.
Put it in the invite. A one-line heads-up before the call gives people the chance to opt out in advance.
Know your purpose. Personal recall is treated very differently from recording to share, publish, or use in employment or legal matters.
Mind the storage. Where the recording lives afterward is a separate data-protection question. A copy on a vendor's cloud expands who can access it and what law applies to it.
Follow your workplace policy. It may be stricter than the law, and breaking it can cost you a job even where recording is legal.
Don't record conversations you're not in. That's the one rule with almost no exceptions.

Where processing location comes in

Consent governs whether you may record. Data protection governs what happens to the recording — and that's where on-device tools help. When transcription runs on your own Mac, there's no second copy sitting in a vendor's cloud to secure, retain, or hand over. You still need consent to record, but you shrink the data-protection surface to a single device you control. That's why privacy-sensitive professionals increasingly prefer local notetakers.

QuietScribe records and transcribes meetings entirely on your Mac — nothing is uploaded — so the only place your conversation exists is the machine in front of you. Flat $10/month, one Mac, unlimited minutes.

Try QuietScribe — free private beta