Your AI Notetaker Is a Snitch

By VICKY BROWN

Let’s be real – AI notetakers have been marketed to us like the ultimate productivity hack. They show up in your meetings, quietly transcribe every word, and send you a tidy little summary. No more scribbling in the margins of your notebook. No more playing back Zoom recordings at 1.5x speed to find the one thing someone said.

Sounds like a dream, right?

But here’s what I want to say – just because a tool is helpful doesn’t mean it’s harmless. And as small business owners, especially those of us without a legal team sitting next to us, we don’t always realize what we’re opening the door to. And trust me – this is one of those doors.

Let’s talk about what happens when your AI notetaker turns into your biggest risk factor.

Privilege Lost Is Privilege Gone

Let’s start with attorney-client privilege. This one gets overlooked all the time.

You’re on a call with your lawyer. It’s sensitive. You’re talking strategy. Maybe risk. Maybe even potential liability. You want a transcript so you don’t miss anything, so you turn on your AI notetaker.

But here’s the problem: that transcript doesn’t live in a locked drawer in your office. It’s sitting on a third-party server. And depending on the tool, it may have already been indexed, stored, and possibly analyzed.

And in that moment – you’ve probably just broken privilege. You’ve pulled a confidential legal conversation out of the protected zone and tossed it into a vendor’s data pool. That means the other side could argue it’s fair game.

And once you lose that privilege – you don’t get it back.

You Think It’s Notes. A Lawyer Thinks It’s Evidence.

AI transcripts aren’t bullet points. They’re searchable, speaker-labeled, timestamped digital records. They don’t capture tone. They don’t capture phrasing. And in the wrong context, they can paint a picture you didn’t intend.

If your business ever ends up in a dispute, these transcripts might be requested in discovery. And you may be required to hand them over – even if they contain sensitive strategy or offhand comments you didn’t mean to put on the record.

No one’s saying you can’t use transcripts. But don’t forget that they’re more than memory aids – they’re documents. And documents get shared, scrutinized, and sometimes used against you.

Consent Isn’t Optional

Here’s something that’ll make your stomach drop: in California and other all-party consent states, recording a conversation – yes, even via AI notetaker – requires permission from every participant. Not just a quick “this meeting may be recorded” pop-up. Real, informed consent.

And if someone didn’t give it? That’s not just bad etiquette. That’s a legal problem.

Now imagine you’ve been recording meetings with clients, team members, or even vendors – without consistently getting that full consent. That’s a liability you might not even realize is sitting on your server.

“… Your meeting data is being sent out into the world – to third-party servers, cloud storage, vendor dashboards“

Where Is Your Data Sleeping Tonight?

Most people assume these tools are working locally – processing audio on your machine, then handing you a transcript. But in most cases, that’s not how it works.

Your meeting data is being sent out into the world – to third-party servers, cloud storage, vendor dashboards. It may be saved, analyzed, even used to improve the very AI that processed it. If you’re talking about IP, client strategies, new offerings, or financial data – that information could be sitting on a platform you don’t own, in a country with different privacy rules, under terms of service you’ve never read.

And don’t get me started on data breaches. These vendors are juicy targets. If they’re breached, your business info might be part of the fallout. Not a great phone call to make to a client.

AI Isn’t Human – and That’s a Problem

Beyond the legal and privacy issues, there’s something else we have to talk about: trust and tone.

AI notetakers can’t read a room. They can’t tell if someone was joking, nervous, or frustrated. They might completely mishear a word and substitute something that changes the entire meaning. They hallucinate – meaning they make things up.

And unlike a human note-taker, they can’t be called to clarify what was said. They’re just… there. And if you try to rely on a transcript like that in a critical moment? It could backfire. Badly.

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What Does This Mean for You?

Here’s the thing: I’m not anti-AI. I use these tools. I love tech that makes things easier. But I am very pro-intentionality. Especially when the stakes are this high.

So if you’re going to use an AI notetaker:

Always get full consent – from everyone involved.
Be crystal clear on which meetings can be recorded and which cannot.
Don’t record legal, HR, or high-stakes client meetings. Go human for those.
Review transcripts for accuracy – and delete what you don’t need.
Understand your vendor’s data policy. Not just the marketing – read the fine print.

And finally – don’t underestimate how this impacts your team culture. People behave differently when they know every word is being recorded. Sometimes that’s helpful. But sometimes it kills the conversation before it even starts.

Leadership Means Making the Call

AI notetakers aren’t good or bad. They’re just tools. But using them blindly – without clear policies, without understanding the risks, without thinking through the human dynamics – that’s not leadership.

So slow down. Ask the hard questions. And make the call that protects your business and your people.