Is Otter AI Safe? Recording Client Meetings

It depends: Otter can suit client meetings when everyone agrees to recording and your practice approves its data use, sharing settings and retention.

Is Otter AI Safe for Client Meetings?

Otter stores more than a set of meeting minutes. Its privacy policy covers audio recordings and transcripts, speaker identification information, uploaded material and automatic meeting screenshots. Connected calendars also supply meeting information.

The policy permits training Otter’s own technology on de-identified audio and transcripts that may contain personal information. Its privacy and security explanation describes automated training without human review. It separately says third-party AI providers do not train on customer data.

That third-party promise does not exclude Otter’s own training. A practice that prohibits supplier training needs written terms that cover Otter’s use of meeting content before approving client recordings.

Otter says human access to recordings requires explicit customer consent. Its feedback permissions can grant Otter and its service providers access to every conversation in the account, including human review for training and product improvement.

Open Account Settings, then Meetings and Feedback and Training. Select Don’t allow sharing before sharing a client conversation. When this preference is unset, collaborators can grant access to an individual shared conversation through their feedback.

Treat that feedback permission separately from the broader training use in the privacy policy. Set the practice’s account permissions before staff submit ratings or share transcripts.

Other people can read or play conversations when sharing settings grant access. Otter’s auto-share instructions include all calendar guests, same-domain guests and workspace members. Link sharing and individual event settings also need review.

Use Don’t share as the default audience for client meetings. Review each event’s sharing settings because an earlier event-specific choice can override the new default. Limit transcript access to the staff working on that client.

US privacy litigation has challenged Otter’s recording and use of conversations. A 2026 court order allowed some claims to continue and dismissed others. It assessed the sufficiency of allegations, without deciding liability for those allegations.

For a practice, approve the supplier agreement and client disclosure before the bot joins. The Tax Practitioners Board’s AI guidance requires permission for third-party disclosure of client information, unless a legal duty applies.

Is Otter Legal to Use in NSW and Other States?

Yes, Otter can be used lawfully in NSW when the recording and disclosure satisfy the applicable rules. For an ordinary private client meeting, obtain everyone’s informed agreement before recording. A bot appearing in the participant list does not establish that agreement.

Australian states and territories have different listening-device rules. Some prohibit a participant from recording without consent, subject to exceptions. Others allow participant recording but restrict later communication of what was recorded.

Private-Conversation Rules by Jurisdiction

The participant exception is why “one-party consent” differs by state. It does not automatically authorise uploading a conversation to a supplier or sharing its transcript. Queensland’s privacy regulator expressly separates recording from later use.

The private-use exceptions in NSW, Tasmania and the ACT concern recordings not made for communication to non-participants. Do not assume a cloud transcription service falls within that exception. Routine convenience also does not establish a lawful-interest exception.

An interstate meeting can involve more than one jurisdiction. Federal telecommunications interception rules can also apply, depending on how a communication is captured. Obtain advice on a disputed recording before relying on a statutory exception.

For routine meetings, use a practice-wide rule requiring everyone’s agreement. Explain that Otter records and transcribes the conversation, who receives the notes and how the practice handles them. Keep a record of consent. Hold the meeting without recording if someone declines.

Stopping Otter Joining Meetings

Otter joins scheduled calls through a connected calendar and its auto-join settings. A meeting invitation on one attendee’s synced calendar can therefore bring their bot into a call organised by someone else.

A shared invitation can reach several attendees’ calendars, each with a separate Otter account. Turning off your own bot does not change another attendee’s settings. Ask whose account owns each bot that appears.

If a bot joins an unapproved client meeting, pause the discussion. Otter’s live removal instructions say any participant can type “stop otter” in the meeting chat. This removes all Otter Notetakers from that call.

Confirm the bot leaves the participant list before continuing. The host can also remove the bot through the meeting’s participant controls. Stopping it does not delete information already recorded.

Follow Otter’s auto-join instructions to stop future automatic attendance:

1. Open Otter’s Meetings tab and select AI Notetaker settings.
2. Set auto-join to Meetings I manually select.
3. Review upcoming calendar events and turn off Notetaker on any event previously enabled individually.
4. Confirm the next client meeting shows Notetaker switched off.

Changing the default does not override meetings you previously enabled individually. If the bot still appears, check those events and whether another attendee has their own Otter connected.

For a full disconnection, use Otter’s calendar removal steps. Open Integrations, find the connected calendar and choose Disconnect. Future synced events are removed and new events stop syncing.

An Apple Calendar connected through the iOS app must be disconnected there. Open Account Settings, then Connect calendars and the device’s syncing calendars. Select Stop syncing this device’s Calendar.

Deleting an Otter Account and Recordings

Delete recordings from the account that owns them, then close the account if your practice no longer needs it. Removing the mobile app leaves the account intact. Preserve required client records in the practice’s approved storage before deleting anything.

Otter’s conversation deletion procedure separates recoverable deletion from permanent deletion:

1. Open a conversation you own, select its three-dot menu and choose Delete.
2. Confirm OK to move it to Trash. This immediately removes its shared access.
3. For several owned conversations, select them in My Conversations or All Conversations and choose Delete.
4. Open Trash to review what is waiting for deletion.
5. To delete everything there permanently, choose Empty Trash Now and confirm Delete Forever.

Conversations remain in Trash for 30 days unless permanently deleted sooner. Permanent deletion cannot be undone. A conversation shared with you belongs to its owner, so ask that owner to remove it.

Follow Otter’s account deletion procedure once auto-join is off and calendars are disconnected:

1. Export any conversations you must retain and review your subscription cancellation.
2. In Account Settings, open General and select Delete account.
3. Verify your password or the sign-in method used to create the account.
4. Read the confirmation and select Delete account.

The self-service option is available when you are the only person in your workspace. A member of a larger workspace needs the workspace owner’s help. An owner must resolve the other memberships before deleting the workspace account.

Do not remove colleagues merely to make the button appear. Arrange ownership and retention with the practice first. Otter retains limited account information, including email, for accounting and administrative purposes after deletion.

Deleting Otter’s copy does not recall transcripts someone exported or copied elsewhere. Record what was removed and handle those copies separately. Confirm the deletion result, then check that future meetings have no scheduled Otter attendance.

Use the AI privacy guide for the practice’s wider data rules. If you still need meeting notes, the AI note takers guide compares options for that task.