Recording consent laws by state: who has to agree before you record.

The short version

Federal law is one-party consent: if you are part of a conversation, you may record it, and anyone else needs a participant's prior consent (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)). In-person talk is protected only where the speaker reasonably expects privacy. Federal law is a floor, though, and these states go further by requiring everyone's consent. That is often called "two-party" consent, even when more people are talking.

• In person: California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Montana and Oregon require that everyone knows or is told, rather than that everyone agrees.
• Phone calls: California, Connecticut (civil liability), Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.
• Unsettled: Delaware, whose two statutes conflict, and Michigan, where participants may record under a 1982 appeals ruling that the state supreme court has not ruled on. Hawaii and Maine require consent for a device placed in a private place, and the surveys disagree about Missouri.

Every other state, and the District of Columbia, follows the one-party rule. Vermont has no recording statute, so federal law applies there. Lists online count anywhere from 11 to 13 all-party states because several states treat in-person talk and phone calls differently. The table shows both.

State by state

"All-party" means everyone in the conversation must agree, or in Montana and Oregon, must know. Highlighted cells are stricter than federal law.

Checked 9 October 2026 against the statutes, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press's Reporter's Recording Guide, and the 50-state charts from Kilpatrick Townsend (July 2024) and Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer (January 2023). Where they disagree, the notes say so.

Calls across state lines

No federal rule decides which state's law applies when the people on a call are in different states. Courts use their own choice-of-law rules, and they have gone both ways:

• California applies its law to recorders elsewhere. In Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney (2006), a brokerage office in Georgia that recorded calls with California clients without telling them was held to California's all-party rule from then on.
• Nevada looks at where the recording is made. Its all-party rule for calls does not reach a recorder outside Nevada (Ditech Financial v. Buckles, 2017).
• Some statutes reach across the border on their face. Washington's covers calls "between points within or without the state."

You often cannot know where someone on a mobile phone is standing. The Reporters Committee advises assuming the stricter state's law applies. The simple rule: if anyone on the call is, or might be, in an all-party state, get everyone's consent on the recording.

Private conversations and public places

Most of these laws protect in-person talk only when the speaker reasonably expects not to be overheard or recorded, and many all-party states build in the same limit: California protects "confidential" communications, Illinois "private" conversations, and Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington have similar tests. Courts weigh where the talk happened, who could hear, how loud it was and what precautions people took. A public place is not automatically fair game: a quiet conversation at a secluded table can still be private.

There are exceptions in both directions. Massachusetts bars secret recording of any speech, public or private. Oregon requires notice for in-person talk anywhere, apart from open recording at public events. And in California, Maryland and Pennsylvania, phone calls are protected wherever the caller is standing.

Several federal appeals courts recognize a First Amendment right to openly record police and other officials doing their jobs in public (Glik v. Cunniffe, 1st Cir. 2011; ACLU of Illinois v. Alvarez, 7th Cir. 2012).

Get consent on the recording

One habit satisfies every state's rule and leaves proof in the file: start the recorder, then ask.

1. Start recording before you ask, so the question and the answers are captured.
2. Ask in plain words: "I'd like to record this conversation so my notes are accurate. Is that all right with everyone?"
3. Get a spoken yes from each person. A nod does not show up in a recording.
4. Ask again when someone joins partway through.
5. Keep the phone or recorder where people can see it.
6. If anyone says no, stop, and take written notes instead.

The law rewards this. Washington treats a recorded announcement as consent, Connecticut's civil statute accepts consent given at the start of the recording, and the Reporters Committee calls recording a subject's verbal consent a best practice. Broadcasters have one more rule: before recording a phone call to put on the air, tell the other party, unless they are presumed to know, as on a call-in show (47 C.F.R. § 73.1206).

Other rules that can apply

• Using or sharing a recording. Disclosing or using an unlawful recording is usually a separate offense, under federal law and in many states.
• Video. Hidden video is often covered by separate laws. In Georgia, for example, audio is one-party, but hidden video in a private place needs everyone's consent.
• Court. Evidence rules can bar a lawful recording. Wisconsin generally excludes a recorded call from civil cases unless the person was told it was being recorded and could be used in court.
• Your profession. Lawyers have ethics rules on top of the law (see AI note-takers for lawyers), and researchers need their ethics board's approval (see transcribing research interviews).
• Other countries. This guide covers US law. People abroad may be protected by their own country's laws.

What changed recently

No state has switched between one-party and all-party consent since 2023, as far as we can find. These are the changes that matter:

• Oregon: a federal appeals court upheld the in-person notice rule in January 2025, and the Supreme Court declined to review it in October 2025.
• Pennsylvania: since December 2023, people may record telemarketing and robocalls to enforce telemarketing laws.
• Florida: a 2024 law lets a parent or guardian record to capture evidence of abuse or violence against a child.
• Vermont: since April 2026, telehealth and phone consultations may be recorded only with both the patient's and the provider's consent.
• California: a law signed in September 2026 limits lawsuits over website and app tracking. The rules on recording conversations are unchanged.
• Proposals that did not pass: all-party bills in Alaska (2025) and New York (still in committee), and bills to soften Maryland's rule (through 2026).

Questions

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