Is Otter.ai safe to use?
Otter.ai encrypts your data and says conversations stay private unless you share them, but it has real caveats: it joins meetings as a visible bot, can auto-join calls when a host connects their calendar, trains its own models on de-identified user data, and faces a 2025 class-action lawsuit over recording without consent. Reline is bot-free and private by default.
Otter.ai encrypts your data and says conversations stay private unless you share them, but it has real caveats: it joins meetings as a visible bot, can auto-join calls when a host connects their calendar, trains its own models on de-identified user data, and faces a 2025 class-action lawsuit over recording without consent. Reline is bot-free and private by default.
The details
- The biggest concern is consent: if a host connects Otter to their calendar, an Otter Notetaker can auto-join meetings without participants explicitly agreeing — and a 2025 U.S. class-action lawsuit alleges Otter recorded private conversations without proper consent.
- Otter encrypts data in transit and at rest and offers HIPAA coverage only under an Enterprise Business Associate Agreement; per its own policy, it also trains its models on de-identified user data.
- Reline takes a different posture: it never sends a bot, captures audio locally on your own device, is private by default (no one sees a note without an explicit grant), and your audio and transcripts are never used to train third-party models.
- If you’re evaluating Otter for sensitive or client calls, the safer pattern is bot-free local capture with clear consent — that’s exactly how Reline is designed.
Last updated June 2026
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