Recording calls and meetings in Italy: the law explained

On recording calls, Italy's law has been shaped more by its courts than by a single statute. The Court of Cassation has long treated a recording made by someone taking part in a conversation as a document — evidence of a fact — rather than as an interception of other people's communications. That is not a licence to do anything with it: spreading such a recording to damage someone's reputation is a crime under article 617-septies of the Codice penale, recording in someone's home can fall under article 615-bis, and a recording made for work is personal data under the GDPR.

This guide covers both layers and ends with a routine for calls with people in Italy. For the picture across countries, see is it legal to record a meeting?

Recording calls in Italy: the law at a glance

Layer 1: the Codice penale and the courts

A participant's recording, as the courts treat it

The Court of Cassation's joint criminal sections, in judgment n. 36747 of 2003, held that the recording of a conversation, being a representation of a fact, "integra la prova documentale disciplinata dall'art. 234 primo comma c.p.p." — it is documentary evidence under article 234 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Later rulings have applied the same approach to a recording of a phone call made by one participant without the other knowing (Sez. VI n. 728/1994) and to recordings of meetings made by someone entitled to be there (Sez. VI n. 5782/2019).

We took these summaries from the case notes (massime) published by Brocardi.it, a legal publisher, not from the court's own database, which we could not reach. They are about whether a recording can be used as evidence in criminal proceedings. They do not decide every question about whether making or using a recording was lawful in other contexts.

Listening in on others: article 617

Article 617 punishes, with 18 months to five years' imprisonment, whoever fraudulently learns of a telephone or other communication or conversation between other people or not addressed to them. The key words are "tra altre persone o comunque a lui non dirette": the offence protects conversations you are not part of.

Spreading a recording: article 617-septies

Article 617-septies, in force since January 2018, is the provision most directly about recordings made by participants. It punishes, with up to four years' imprisonment, whoever, to damage another's reputation or image, spreads by any means fraudulently made recordings "di conversazioni, anche telefoniche o telematiche, svolte in sua presenza o con la sua partecipazione" — of conversations, including telephone or online ones, held in their presence or with their participation.

Two limits in the text matter:

• The purpose is part of the offence: spreading to damage reputation or image.
• There is an exclusion where the spreading derives directly and immediately from use in administrative or judicial proceedings, or from exercising the right of defence or of news reporting.

Prosecution requires a complaint (querela) from the person harmed.

Private life at home: article 615-bis

Article 615-bis punishes, with six months to four years, whoever uses visual or sound recording tools to obtain improperly news or images of private life taking place in the places listed in article 614 — someone else's home or other private dwelling. A video call from a colleague's home is not obviously within it, but it is a reason not to record anything beyond the meeting itself.

Layer 2: the GDPR, the Codice privacy and the workplace

A recording of a work meeting, its transcript and notes are personal data about everyone who spoke. The GDPR applies in Italy together with the Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali (D.lgs. 196/2003), and the regulator is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali. Recording meetings under GDPR covers the steps: a lawful basis, a notice at the time, a retention period and a contract with each processor.

Article 160-bis of the Codice privacy says that whether evidence based on processing that breaks data-protection law can be used in court is governed by the rules of procedure. In other words, a GDPR problem does not automatically make a recording unusable, and a usable recording is not automatically lawful processing.

Monitoring at work: article 4 of the Workers' Statute

Article 4 of the Statuto dei lavoratori (Law 300/1970), which the Codice privacy preserves in its article 114, governs audiovisual systems and other tools that allow remote monitoring of workers' activity:

• They may be used only for organisational and production needs, workplace safety and protection of company assets.
• They may be installed only after an agreement with the unions or, failing that, authorisation from the national labour inspectorate.
• The rule does not apply to tools the worker uses to do the job.
• Information collected may be used for employment purposes only if workers have been adequately informed how the tools are used and how checks are made, and in compliance with the Codice privacy.

A notetaker used by one person to write up their own meetings is not an obvious fit for "remote monitoring", but a company-wide rollout that records staff meetings may be. That is a question for HR and the unions before it is a question for IT. Can your employer record your meetings? looks at it from the employee's side.

The Garante

We did not find guidance from the Garante specifically on a participant recording a call or a meeting. Its recent workplace guidance, such as the June 2024 document on email metadata, shows a strict reading of article 4 and short retention periods for monitoring data. Treat recordings of colleagues with the same caution.

A routine for calls with people in Italy

1. Say in the invitation that you would like to record, and why.
2. Start the recorder and ask at the start, so the question and answers are on the recording. In Italian, "Posso registrare la chiamata per i miei appunti?" is a plain way to ask. How to ask for consent to record has English wording.
3. If anyone objects, stop.
4. Never pass the recording on to make a point about someone. Share checked notes instead.
5. Set a retention period and delete on schedule.

How Notey fits into this

Notey does not make a recording lawful or unlawful. It keeps the recording on your Mac and the list of places data goes short.

• Nothing is saved until you press Allow when Notey notices a call, unless you chose a rule in advance, such as arming the next call.
• The audio stays on your Mac and is transcribed there with Apple's on-device speech recognition, in the Mac's language. Italian is among the languages live transcription supports; the improved transcript after a meeting is English only.
• AI notes send transcript text only, when you ask or when write-ups are on, to Notey's service and on to OpenAI as a processor. See the privacy policy.
• Deleting a meeting removes its recording, transcript and notes, from every Mac with sync on.
• The red dot and elapsed timer are visible to you, not to the call.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to record a conversation you take part in in Italy?

Italy's Court of Cassation has held, including in a 2003 joint-sections ruling, that a participant's recording is documentary evidence and not an interception. That is about evidence; spreading the recording or recording in someone's home raise separate offences.

What does article 617-septies say?

It punishes, with up to four years' imprisonment, spreading secretly made recordings of conversations held in your presence or with your participation, in order to damage someone's reputation or image. Use in court proceedings, for a legal defence or for news reporting is excluded.

Can my employer in Italy record meetings?

Tools that allow remote monitoring of workers' activity may be used only for organisational, production, safety or asset-protection needs, and in general only after a union agreement or labour-inspectorate authorisation, under article 4 of the Workers' Statute.

Does the Garante have guidance on recording meetings?

We did not find guidance from the Garante on a participant recording a call or meeting. Its general guidance on employee data and the GDPR's principles apply.

Does the GDPR apply to recording a work meeting in Italy?

Generally, yes. The GDPR's exemption covers purely personal or household activity, which a work meeting usually is not.