Recording & Consent

This policy explains recording on Saathum — audio calls, video calls, live video, and consultations — and what the AI receptionist captures when it answers a call for you. It is part of our Terms of Service and sits alongside our Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy.

1. Does Saathum record your calls?

We do not record your calls in the background. A one-to-one or group call is not recorded by Saathum simply because it happens on our platform.

A recording can exist in only two situations:

• A participant chooses to record, using a recording feature in the app where one is available for that call type.
• The AI receptionist answers a call on your behalf — see section 5.

Recording features are not available on every call type or every device, and may be turned off for a feature, a region, or an account. Where a feature is described as end-to-end encrypted, Saathum cannot produce a recording of it.

Separately, anyone on a call can record it with tools outside Saathum — a screen recorder, a second phone, a camera. No platform can prevent that. Assume that anything you say or show to another person could be captured, and share accordingly.

2. Recording laws differ by country

Whether you may record a conversation, and whose permission you need, depends on where you are and where the other people are. Some places allow one participant to record without telling the others. Many require every participant to consent, and recording without that consent can be a criminal offence as well as a civil wrong. Rules can be stricter again for calls that are recorded for business purposes, for calls involving health or financial information, and for recordings that are later published.

Saathum cannot tell you which law applies to your call, and nothing on this page is legal advice.

3. It is your responsibility to get consent

You must not record covertly, must not keep recording after someone withdraws consent, and must not record where the law does not permit it. Recording a person for the purpose of harassing, blackmailing, or exposing them is a serious violation of our Acceptable Use Policy, and recording intimate content without consent is prohibited absolutely. Anything involving a minor is covered by our Child Safety Standards.

4. Notice when a recording starts

Where Saathum offers an in-app recording feature, we aim to make recording visible rather than silent: participants are shown an indicator or notice when a recording begins, and the indicator stays visible while recording continues. That notice is a courtesy and a signal — it is not a substitute for the consent the law may require you to obtain, and it does not make an unlawful recording lawful.

If you see a recording indicator and you do not want to be recorded, say so, and leave the call if it continues. You can report it afterwards — see section 8.

5. The AI receptionist

Saathum includes an AI receptionist that can answer a call for you when you are unavailable. If you turn it on:

• The receptionist speaks with the caller, and audio from that conversation is processed so it can understand and respond.
• Depending on the feature and your settings, Saathum may keep a transcript, a summary, or a recording of the conversation, so you can see what the caller wanted.
• Only the exchange with the receptionist is captured. If the call is then handed over to you and becomes a normal call, the ordinary rules in section 1 apply.
• Callers are intended to be able to tell they are speaking with an automated assistant. Do not configure the receptionist to deceive callers where disclosure is required by law.

Turning the receptionist on is your decision, and the consequences for callers are your responsibility. Where the law requires callers to be told that a call is being recorded or handled by an automated system, that obligation sits with you as the account holder. If you are unsure, do not enable it. You can turn the receptionist off in the app.

6. Storage, access, and deletion

• Where recordings live. Recordings, transcripts, and summaries created through Saathum are stored against the account that created them, and are subject to our Privacy Policy. Some content is kept on your device; some is stored on our infrastructure so you can reach it from more than one device.
• Who can see them. The account that made the recording, and anyone that account shares it with. Our staff do not routinely listen to recordings. We may access a recording where you ask us to for support, where we are investigating a report or suspected abuse, or where we are required to by law or valid legal process.
• How long we keep them. For as long as you keep them, or as long as we need to provide the feature, meet a legal obligation, or resolve a dispute. Deleted items may persist briefly in backups before they are overwritten.
• Training. We do not use your recordings to train shared AI models without your consent.
• Security. We protect recordings using the measures described in our Privacy Policy. No system is perfectly secure.

7. Sharing a recording

Do not share, publish, post, forward, or sell a recording of another person without their consent — including clips, screenshots, and transcripts. This applies whether the recording was made on Saathum or somewhere else, and it applies even if the recording itself was lawful. A person consenting to be recorded is not the same as consenting to be published.

8. Requesting deletion, or reporting a recording

To delete your own recordings, use the delete option in the app. If you cannot reach something you created — for example after changing devices — email [email protected] from the address on the account and tell us what you want removed.

If someone recorded you and you want it taken down, contact them first where it is safe to do so. If they will not act, or if the recording is being used to harass you, is intimate, or was made without the consent your law requires, report it to [email protected] or through the in-app report tool. Tell us who was involved, roughly when the call happened, and what is being shared. We review reports we receive, and where a recording is on our systems and breaches this policy we may remove it and take action on the account.

We cannot delete a copy that has left our platform, and we cannot remove something we never held. Where a recording is being shared elsewhere, you may also need to contact that platform or the authorities.

You can escalate through our Grievance Redressal process, which has specific timelines for non-consensual intimate imagery.

9. Changes

We may update this policy as recording features change. We will post the updated version here and revise the date above.

Questions? Email [email protected]. See also our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and Live Consultation Terms.