Recording Responsibly

What to know before you record a conversation, and who is responsible for what.

Last updated: August 22, 2026

RiverScript records audio the way a voice recorder or a screen recorder does: it starts when you start it, on your own device, and it captures what you point it at. That makes it useful for meetings, lectures, interviews, podcasts, research, accessibility, and personal notes. It also means the person deciding what gets recorded is you.

This page explains what that means in practice. It is general information, not legal advice. If a recording matters — professionally, commercially, or personally — check the rules that apply where you are, or ask someone qualified.

The rules differ from place to place

There is no single worldwide rule for recording conversations. Broadly, two patterns exist:

Everyone involved must agree. In many countries, and in a number of US states, a private conversation may only be recorded if all participants know about it and agree.
One participant is enough. Elsewhere, it is enough that one person taking part in the conversation — which can be you — knows about the recording.

On top of that, particular settings often add their own requirements: workplaces, healthcare, education, financial services, public authorities, and courts frequently have specific rules about recording, storing, and sharing what was said. Calls that cross borders can be subject to more than one set of rules at once.

Recording something that is being streamed or presented to you — a lecture, a webinar, a paid course, a film — can also be limited by the terms of the platform providing it, separately from any question of privacy.

Read up on the rules that apply where you are, and follow them. It usually takes a few minutes and it settles the question for good.

When in doubt, ask. Saying "I'm recording this so I can transcribe my notes, is that alright with everyone?" at the start of a call takes five seconds. In places that require everyone's agreement it is what the rules ask for; everywhere else it is simply good practice, and it removes the awkwardness later.

Say it where it is recorded. If the platform has a chat, put a line in it. If the meeting has minutes, note it there. Then the agreement is part of the record, not something anyone has to remember.

Respect a "no". If someone objects, stop. A transcript is rarely worth a damaged relationship, and in some places continuing after an objection changes the legal picture entirely.

Think about the transcript, not just the recording. Being allowed to record something does not automatically mean it should be forwarded, published, or stored forever. Decide who needs it and for how long.

Delete what you no longer need. Any transcript can be deleted from your account at any time, and audio disappears on its own after 7 days.

What RiverScript does and does not do

Recording is started by you, on your device. There is no remote activation and no way for anyone, including us, to start a recording on your machine.
The Desktop client shows a visible recording state while it is capturing. There is no hidden or disguised mode, and we will not build one.
On macOS, capturing system audio requires the operating system's Screen Recording permission, which only you can grant and which you can revoke at any time.
We receive only the material you choose to submit. Recordings you keep on your own computer stay there, in your folder, until you delete them.
Audio and video that reach our servers are automatically and permanently deleted 7 days after upload.
We never use your recordings or transcripts for our own purposes — no model training, no advertising, no selling. See the Privacy Policy.

Who is responsible for what

You decide what to record, whom to record, and why. That makes you the controller of that material under data protection law, and it means the question of whether a recording was appropriate to make in the first place is yours to answer.

We transcribe what you send us, on your instruction, and we do nothing else with it. That makes us your processor. If you use RiverScript for work and your recordings contain other people's personal data, our Data Processing Terms apply automatically — you do not need to sign anything to get them.

The commitments that follow from that are set out in the Privacy Policy, the Security page, and the Subprocessors list. The corresponding obligations on your side are in the "Recording, Consent, and Lawful Use" section of the Terms of Service.

If you appear in a recording someone else made

Because the person who made the recording decides why it exists, requests to access, correct, or delete it are directed to them rather than to us. We cannot identify who appears in a recording and we do not search user content.

If you write to [email protected] with enough detail to identify the specific content, we will pass your request on to the account holder responsible and act on their instructions, which is what data protection law requires of a processor.

If content hosted through a RiverScript share link is illegal rather than merely unwanted, report it to [email protected] with the subject line "Illegal content report". We act on those ourselves — see the "Reporting Illegal Content" section of the Terms of Service.

Questions

Write to [email protected]. We are happy to explain how the product works and what happens to your data. We cannot tell you what the law requires of you in your country — for that, ask a qualified professional.