One other Bloody Otter Has Joined the Name

This put up is a lament. I believed we had been accomplished with the 2023-2024 dangerous behavior of each individual attending an internet assembly with their AI notetaking assistant in tow, however right here we’re, November 2025, and I’ve simply attended not one however three conferences which steadily crammed up with Otters, Fireflies, and different assorted disembodied stenographers.

When you’ve got any form of on-line life, you’ve seen them. Possibly you utilize them your self. I actually use the in-built Zoom AI Companion for automated summaries and actions, and I exploit Otter.AI as a part of transcribing my very own weblog posts.

However there has to be a consensus on what “applicable use” of this stuff appears like: we will’t all shamble into on-line conferences anticipating that each attendee has given their consent for each phrase they are saying (and in some circumstances, screenshots of slides, faces, and different visuals) to be handed alongside to god-knows-what third get together utility.

Otters and Fireflies and Companions, oh my!

These assistants are available many flavours. Most of them, like the favored Otter and Firefly functions, use companies like OpenAI’s “whisper” speech-to-text mannequin to transcribe audio. Additionally they continuously use GPT to create computerized summaries, lists of actions, speaker digests, and Q&A options.

They are often extremely helpful. My handwritten assembly notes can actually be complemented by a concise dot-point abstract, permitting me to atone for locations the place I’ll have missed one thing necessary. The issue isn’t the functions per se: it’s the dearth of consent over their use.

Most of those functions supply methods to routinely be a part of calls which might be on the consumer’s calendar. For the love of all that’s sacred (which isn’t a lot, in a Groups name), flip that function off.

These days, I’ve seen a fair worse transgression. Some firms – I received’t title them right here except they hold doing it to me – have added me to “skilled studying webinars” with out my consent. That’s already dodgy, nevertheless it’s compounded when, even after unsubscribing, I obtain 100 follow-up emails from the Firefly Assistants of scores of people that additionally, presumably, by no means truly joined the session.

My inbox floods with spammy AI-generated summaries of a gathering I by no means supposed on attending, and I get the added bonus of briefly panicking that I’ve missed an necessary occasion that ought to have been on my calendar.

Is it authorized?

Look… in all probability not. So, cease it.

Right here’s an unambiguous assertion from the Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner:

“The Privateness Act applies to all makes use of of AI involving private data.”

OAIC: Steering on privateness and using commercially obtainable AI merchandise

So, in case your Otter joins a Zoom name and I’m within the viewers, the host has solely seconds earlier than you may moderately be accused of breaching a variety of necessary facets of the Privateness Act. For instance, in addition to the audio transcript Otter can take screenshots of the lively name, together with what’s being screen-shared. What if the screen-share accommodates a picture of my face, or my title or my e-mail handle?

Nicely…

If private data is being enter into an AI system, APP 6 requires entities to solely use or disclose the knowledge for the first objective for which it was collected, except they’ve consent or can set up the secondary use can be moderately anticipated by the person, and is expounded (or instantly associated, for delicate data) to the first objective. A secondary use could also be inside a person’s cheap expectations if it was expressly outlined in a discover on the time of assortment and in your small business’s privateness coverage.
OAIC: Steering on privateness and using commercially obtainable AI merchandise

The switch of my title, e-mail handle, a picture of my face, or doubtlessly the content material of the transcript of what I’ve mentioned in the course of the assembly might moderately be thought of private data “enter into an AI system”. As I discussed, for many of those functions the information is distributed to a 3rd get together for processing, and usually that is through OpenAI’s API.

With reference to consent, there’s additionally some variance state-to-state in Australia. The clearest articulation I’ve discovered of those variations comes from the web site of McInness Wilson Attorneys, and I’ll simply quote it verbatim right here:

The legal guidelines relating to the recording of conversations differ from state to state. Queensland is ruled by The Invasion of Privateness Act 1971 (Qld) (IPA) in relation to the legal guidelines relating to the recording of conversations in Queensland.

Opposite to most different Australian Jurisdictions, the IPA states that it’s authorized for any participant in a personal dialog, whether or not or not it’s in individual, through phone or different digital communication (together with video conferencing reminiscent of Zoom, WhatsApp or FaceTime), to file a dialog in Queensland with none information or consent of the opposite events to the dialog. It’s unlawful, nevertheless, to publish or distribute a recorded dialog with out the consent of the opposite events.

In Victoria and New South Wales, it’s unlawful to file conversations with out the consent of the opposite individual. Complexities can subsequently come up when conversations are held with purchasers who’re in several states.

At a federal degree, recording conversations that happen over the telecommunications community can be unlawful. Advisers must hold this in thoughts relying on the platform on which consumer conferences happen.

through

Internationally it’s not all the time clear the place the boundaries lie. Within the US, consent legal guidelines for recording differ state by state, with many solely requiring “one get together consent”. This map comes from an AI assistant firm, so take the intention behind it with a hefty pinch of salt…

AI Assistants IRL

A lot of these AI note-taking assistants aren’t restricted to digital calls. The most well-liked {hardware} machine in Australia appears to be Plaud, which is a bank card sized machine that basically data audio and sends it to… someplace (I spent some time on their web site and couldn’t fairly determine it out past the imprecise assertion that “Plaud Intelligence is developed on main AI fashions, together with GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4, and Gemini 2.5 Professional”). These gadgets can be found in a spread of styles and sizes, together with one which sticks to the again of your telephone to file telephone calls, and one which is about thumb-sized and designed to inconspicuously nestle in your lapel.

These merchandise nearly appear designed to evade consideration, and truthfully I discover them a little bit creepy. In the event you’re recording your personal ideas, effective. I frequently file voice memos whereas I’m wandering about on my own. However when you’re hitching up a hidden recorder to your telephone calls you then’re both some form of particular agent in a spy film, otherwise you’re as much as one thing. Recall the recommendation above from the McInness Wilson web site which states that, in Australia, “at a federal degree, recording conversations that happen over the telecommunications community can be unlawful.”

One weblog put up on the Plaud web site seems to present tacit recommendation that secretly recording conversations is OK so long as you’re doing it for the precise causes, no matter they’re. Right here’s a little bit snippet:

Many individuals surprise about this: Is it okay to secretly file a name with a voice recorder? What when you don’t inform the opposite individual? Does that make it an unlawful recording?

Based mostly on the legislation in lots of locations, so long as you’re part of the dialog and also you don’t have an unlawful purpose for recording it, you’re usually within the clear.

However the legality of your recording can rely upon the precise scenario.

For instance, was it a personal dialog? Was one other individual concerned? Was it about extremely private data? Additionally, even when a recording is authorized, it isn’t a assure {that a} courtroom will settle for it as proof. A choose will nonetheless take a look at issues like whether or not the recording is actual, if the way in which you recorded it was honest, and if it’s actually related to the case.

To be protected, it’s all the time a good suggestion to get the opposite individual’s consent earlier than you begin recording.

through the Plaud weblog

So, “to be on the protected aspect” you need to get consent: not due to (il)legality or some basic sense of ethical consciousness, however since you may get caught and a choose may resolve you’ve been a bit naughty…

Lastly, these bodily AI merchandise additionally appear a little bit pointless. I can obtain every thing that considered one of these (costly) gadgets can do with the AI Companion constructed into Zoom, or with my laptop computer microphone and a free ChatGPT account.

Simply flip off the auto-join

I’m solely asking for one factor actually: flip off the auto be a part of. If, for some purpose, you select to attach your Otter or your secret credit-card sized recording machine to your calendar, then at the least uncheck the field that claims “routinely be a part of conferences”.

In the event you do need to use them to help with minute taking, get consent from all events. Apply some widespread sense: when you’re in a gathering with 100 individuals, then it’s impractical – or at the least very time consuming – to get consent from everybody within the name. If it’s one-to-one and by mutual settlement, it’s in all probability effective.

Webinar hosts, workforce leaders, and presenters of on-line skilled studying periods don’t want the burden of individually nixing three dozen animal-based AI assistants in each Zoom name.

A brand new course is launching subsequent week on the Sensible AI Methods web site. The Sensible AI Course of goes by way of basis to superior degree classes overlaying every thing from primary GenAI functions to open supply AI, AI brokers, and multimodal GenAI.

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