Call Recording & Consent

Everyone in a call is told. What that does and does not settle.

Version 3 · in force since 24 September 2026 · what changed. Drafted in good faith; not legal advice.

Recording a conversation is lawful in some places only if everyone consents, and in others only if one person does. We do not try to work out which rule applies to a call between two countries. We apply the strictest: everyone in the call is told.

What happens when someone records

• Every participant is notified, on their own screen, that recording has started — including people who joined afterwards.
• The notice is addressed to everyone currently in the call, not just the person who was originally dialled.
• If you do not want to be recorded, leave the call. That is the only reliable control any of us has.

Your responsibility

The notice is not legal advice and it is not consent. If the law where you are — or where any other participant is — requires their agreement before you record, get it. Recording someone unlawfully is your act, not ours.

What we store

For a call recording: nothing. It is produced on the recorder's own device and saved there. We do not receive a copy, and we cannot retrieve one for you or for anyone else.

For a cloud recording of a meeting: the recording itself, for two days. See below.

Cloud recording of a meeting

• Who can start one. Only the host of a meeting, and only on the Business plan. The host is asked to confirm first.
• Who is told. Everyone in the meeting sees that it is being recorded, for as long as it is — including anyone who joins after it started. This comes from our server's own record, not from the host's device.
• What it captures. The meeting as the host's device sees it: everyone's video, side by side, and everyone's voice. It is made on the host's device and uploaded to us a few seconds at a time.
• Where it is kept. In private, encrypted storage with Amazon Web Services, apart from everything else. It is never public.
• Who can download it. The host and the people who were in the meeting, through a link that works for ten minutes. Each of them sees a notice in the app until they download it or close the notice.
• How long. Two days, then it is deleted — the file and everyone's access. We do not keep a copy. Download it before then if you want to keep it.
• Deleting an account. Deleting the host's account deletes their recordings at once. Deleting anyone else's removes their access.

Recording a live

• Who can start one. The host of a live, on any plan. The host is asked to confirm first.
• Who is told. Everyone watching sees "REC" for as long as it is recording. This comes from our server's own record, not from the host's device.
• What it captures. Only the host: their camera (or, for an audio live, a card with their name) and their microphone, with the title and the Whinchat name drawn on it. No viewer's name, face, voice or comment is in it.
• Who can download it. Only the host, for two days, then it is deleted.
• When it is held instead. If our staff stop the live, or it is stopped by a report, the host does not get the recording. It is kept, out of reach, for as long as the law requires reported material to be preserved (90 days), and then deleted — even if the host deletes their account in the meantime.

Sharing a recording

Sharing a recording of someone else can be unlawful even where making it was not. Intimate recordings shared without consent are covered by Acceptable Use and are grounds for termination.

What has changed

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