How to Review AI Meeting Note-Takers and What They Record

An AI note-taker can join a call through a connected calendar, record everyone in it, and keep the transcript with an outside company. To review one, find which tools are connected, turn off automatic joining and sharing, read how the vendor uses recordings, and tell people before anything records.

Note-takers save real time. They also collect some of the most candid material a business has: pricing talks, staff issues, client details and health matters. The person who connected the tool may have agreed to its terms, but the other people on the call usually have not. This guide covers what to check, in the order that makes sense.

What a note-taker can reach

Most tools work in one of three ways, and the difference changes what you need to check.

Built-in assistants. Zoom AI Companion, Google Meet's "Take notes for me" and Copilot in Teams run inside the meeting platform. Your platform's settings control them.
Bots that join. Tools such as Otter or Fireflies usually appear as a participant. They often get in through calendar access, so they can join meetings the owner never opens.
Device recorders. Some apps capture audio on your own computer and never show up in the participant list. Other people on the call may not be able to tell.

Calendar access is easy to overlook. It can show titles, guest lists and meeting links, even for meetings the tool never records.

How to find what is connected

Ask your team which note-takers they use, including free ones. Ask without blame, or you will not get a full answer.
Check calendar access on personal Google accounts at myaccount.google.com/connections, and on personal Microsoft accounts at account.live.com/consent/manage.
For work accounts, ask your admin to review third-party app access in the Google Workspace Admin console or Microsoft Entra.
Search recent meeting invites and participant lists for names like "notetaker", "assistant" or "AI".
Look at installed apps on your computers for desktop recorders.

Remove anything nobody can explain. Removing an app's access does not delete what the vendor already holds, so see the deletion step below.

How to limit a bot that joins

The steps vary by product, so here is Otter as an example. Other tools have similar settings, often under calendar or meeting options. These come from Otter's help pages and may change.

On the web, go to Integrations > Meetings.
Open the default auto-join setting and choose Meetings I manually select.
On mobile, go to Account > Account Settings > Meeting settings > Auto-join meetings, and select Manual.
Check individual calendar events. Otter says choices you already made for a specific event stay in place.
Turn off auto-share by setting the default audience for shared notes to Don't Share.
If an admin locks these settings, ask them to make the change for the workspace.

If you no longer use the tool, disconnect the calendar first, and then close the account.

How to control built-in assistants

Zoom

Sign in to the Zoom web portal, open Settings, and find the AI Companion or Zoom AI tab. The name has varied, so check your version. There you can turn the meeting summary on or off, and choose who receives it. A greyed-out setting means an admin has locked it. A host can also stop a running summary from the AI Companion control in the meeting. Turning it off for your account affects meetings you host, not meetings hosted by other people.

Google Meet

"Take notes for me" saves a Google Doc in the organizer's Drive. Google's help page says the host can choose who gets the notes: all invited guests, guests inside the organization, or hosts and co-hosts only. Choose the narrowest option that works. Workspace admins can also add a consent requirement, which is off by default.

Microsoft Teams

Admins have a meeting policy for outside bots. In the Teams admin center, open Meeting policies, find the meeting join and lobby section, and look for Manage external bots and their access to meetings. Microsoft's guide says the default holds detected bots in the lobby until someone admits them. It also warns that some bots may not be detected, and that people are sometimes misread as bots.

Microsoft suggests letting only organizers and co-organizers admit people from the lobby. Newer tenants may have an option to block identified bots outright, so check your current settings.

What to read in the vendor's terms

Spend ten minutes on these questions before you approve a tool:

Are recordings or transcripts used to train models, and can you turn that off?
How long are audio and transcripts kept, and can you set the period?
Is a voice profile created for each speaker?
Who at the vendor can read your content, and in what situations?
Are recordings shared with other companies that provide the AI?
Does deleting a meeting delete the audio, the transcript and any summary?

If the answers are not in writing, treat that as your answer. The lawsuit over Otter.ai turns on this kind of question, and that case is still undecided.

Set simple team rules

Announce it at the start of a call whenever an AI tool is recording, and let people object.
Add a line to meeting invites if recording is planned.
Keep note-takers out of calls about health, legal advice, staff matters and client secrets.
Name a small list of approved tools and remove the rest.
Remove any unknown bot from a call, and ask who brought it.
Delete old recordings you no longer need, and confirm how long the vendor keeps deleted items.

Recording laws differ between countries and states, and some require everyone's consent. This guide is not legal advice, so ask a lawyer about the places where you and your participants are based.

If you want a list of AI apps on a work computer, Prycheck can show them, though it cannot tell you what a cloud note-taker has recorded.

Frequently asked questions

Does seeing a bot in the call count as consent?

Do not assume so. Rules differ by place, and people may not understand what a bot does with the recording. Say it out loud, offer a way to object, and take advice for your location.

Will blocking a bot stop all recording?

No. A person can still run a recorder on their own device, and platform controls may not detect it. Blocking helps with the common case, and clear team rules cover the rest.

If I disconnect a note-taker, are my recordings deleted?

Usually not. Disconnecting stops new access, while past recordings stay in the vendor's account until you delete them. Delete what you do not need, then close the account if you are finished with the tool.