Is It Legal to Record a Job Interview? A Recruiter's Guide to Consent

Every recruiter who's started using an AI notetaker runs into this question eventually: is it actually legal to record this call? The short answer is usually yes — but "usually" is doing real work in that sentence, and getting it wrong isn't a small mistake. This isn't legal advice, and nothing here should be treated as a substitute for checking with counsel in your specific jurisdiction. It's a plain-language map of what the question actually involves, so you know what to go verify.

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

In the United States, recording law generally comes down to how many people on the call need to agree to it before you can legally hit record.

One-party consent means that as long as one person on the call — which can be you, the recruiter — knows it's being recorded, that's generally sufficient under the law. Most U.S. states work this way.

All-party consent (sometimes called "two-party consent," which is a slightly misleading name once there are more than two people on a call) means every single participant needs to know and, in most interpretations, affirmatively agree before the recording is legal. A candidate who was never told, and never given the chance to say no, is a real problem in these states — not a technicality.

States commonly cited as requiring all-party consent include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington — though the exact rules, exceptions, and how they apply to video calls specifically vary by state and do change over time. Treat this as a starting point for your own research, not a complete or current legal reference.

Why this gets more complicated on a video call

A few things make interview recording messier than the simple one-party/all-party framing suggests:

• Multiple states, one call. If you're in a one-party state and the candidate is in an all-party state, the stricter rule generally governs — you need their consent regardless of where you're sitting.
• Video platforms have their own disclosure norms. Zoom, Meet, and Teams all show some kind of recording indicator, but a small on-screen icon isn't the same as the verbal, explicit disclosure some states actually require.
• An AI notetaker joining as a bot is still a recording. The law doesn't distinguish between "a human recorded this" and "an AI tool recorded this" — if it's capturing audio and producing a transcript, it's a recording, full stop.
• Candidates are a different category of participant than colleagues. Internal teams often have blanket policies or implicit norms around recorded meetings. A candidate has agreed to none of that — they're a third party encountering your tooling for the first time, usually mid-interview.

What good practice looks like regardless of state

Given the patchwork of rules and how often they change, the practical answer most recruiting teams land on is simple: treat every interview as if it needs explicit consent, regardless of which state you happen to be in.

That means:

• Disclose verbally, at the start of the call — not just a platform icon, an actual sentence: "just so you know, this call is being recorded and transcribed by an AI notetaker."
• Use a tool that joins as a visible, named participant, not one that captures ambiently with no clear signal anyone's aware of. A candidate should be able to see, not infer, that something is recording.
• Keep the disclosure consistent across every interview, not just the ones happening in a state you think requires it — consistency is both the safer legal posture and the fairer one across candidates.

How we handle it

When we vet candidates, every live interview is recorded only after the candidate has been told upfront and has agreed. Our interview tech joins as a visible, named participant, never invisibly, and the disclosure happens out loud at the start of the call. It's the standard we'd suggest for any interview you record yourself: say it plainly, at the start, every time.

If you're unsure what applies to you, the reliable path is the boring one: check your state's specific statute, or ask counsel. This post is a map, not a permit.

Want candidates vetted with consent and recording handled properly from the first call? Book a call.