Is Otter a Secure AI Note Taker?

AI note-taking apps have become a familiar sight in virtual meetings. While these tools can boost productivity, it’s important to ask: where is all your meeting data going?

Otter.ai is one of the most popular AI note takers. It originally launched as a transcription app, designed mainly for journalists and podcast producers to transcribe interviews. It wasn’t built with recurring meetings in mind, which is why Otter doesn’t support video recording except for with its most expensive enterprise plan.

Over time, Otter added features to allow the bot to join meetings and transcribe them as an attendee, but its core design still revolves around individual transcripts, not recurring meeting notes.  The lack of consideration for meetings as a core use case when building the app from the ground up is what has raised red flags about its privacy and security practices.

From Reddit to news articles to LinkedIn, users have shared stories of Otter mishandling or exposing their data. In this post, we’ll look at:

• What real users are saying
• What Otter’s policy claims
• Why this matters for your organization
• A more secure alternative

Why does AI note taker security matter?

Imagine a client call where confidential financials or legal updates are shared — and those details are later used to train an AI model or sent to a third-party server you didn’t approve. That’s the risk when your AI note taker isn’t secure.

Your AI meeting note taker connects to your calendar, gaining access to your schedule of upcoming calls. It then autojoins those calls, appearing as a tile in your video conferencing app. During the call, it collects data, including speaker names, the transcript, and metrics such as when people join and leave the call. That data is then sent to a partner AI provider to be transcribed and sent back. Finally, that data will live in the cloud so you can access it at anytime.

Think of what gets discussed in a meeting:

• Sensitive financial information
• Legal issues
• Confidential customer information
• Private employee information
• And more

It’s that data that’s at stake when we talk about AI note taker security. The key risk, if you don’t choose a secure AI meeting assistant is that your sensitive meeting data could be exposed to unauthorized parties, either through a breach or sloppy security measures.

If you’re using an AI note taker, it’s absolutely essential that you can trust it to keep your data safe. 

💡Tip: For more, download a copy of the AI Meeting Assistant Security Checklist

Otter’s privacy and security policies: A closer look

Next, we’ll grab a magnifying glass and take a closer look at Otter’s security and privacy policies.

Does Otter use your data to train AI?

The short answer is yes. While Otter says its AI service providers are not allowed to train their models on your data, Otter itself does do this. According to their Privacy and Security page, as of May 13, 2025:

“Otter uses a proprietary method to de-identify user data before training our models so that an individual user cannot be identified. This training method is automatic and as such audio recordings and transcripts are not manually reviewed by a human. Additionally our training data is encrypted.”

They do not provide further detail on how they “de-identify” user data, but this does confirm that your meeting data is used to train Otter’s internal models.

Is Otter SOC 2 compliant?

First, Otter follows industry standard compliance, such as SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR. As a consumer, you should always check that apps you’re using meet this minimum.

Overall, a review of Otter’s security and privacy policy from BuildBetter only gave Otter a rating of 4/10.

What real users are saying about Otter’s privacy and security

Overall, users on Reddit and other review sites have raised valid and concerning complaints about Otter’s security, including: 

• Lack of informed consent
• Use of transcripts to train AI
• Third-party data sharing
• Auto-joining meetings
• Risk of noncompliance in regulated industries

We know what Otter says about its privacy and security, but what’s the experience of real-life users? 

1. Unauthorized meeting recording

In practice, it appears that Otter often joins meetings without the explicit consent of all parties. In fact, once it’s connected to a calendar, it seems difficult to control when it will show up.

From a Reddit post in a system administrator forum:

“If one person in the meeting uses Otter, it’s going to automatically record their meetings. The legal liability that this places on the user and your organization is incredible — if you haven’t blocked it yet, I highly recommend blocking this service from your district before you’re hit with lawsuits from employees who did not consent to being recorded.”

2. Difficult to uninstall

Another Reddit user, in a forum for Manager Service Providers, said this of Otter and another AI 

note taker, Read.ai, in particular:

“Once they latch on to your account, they take part in EVERYTHING they can and spread like viruses to other meeting attendees.”

3. Unclear permissions in Otter’s signup process

Another systems administrator on Reddit complained that Otter users may not even realize what they’ve signed up for:

“The account signup process heavily pushes users to sign in with their Microsoft or Google credentials, provide access to calendars and contacts, and regulate to attend all meetings with a link. Most users have no idea they’ve done this, they’re just there for the meeting notes (at the prompting of a trusted colleague/earlier victim).”

“It’s a privacy and security nightmare,” said one comment.

4. Lack of redaction features

In a viral post on X, Alex Bilzerian said he joined a call with a VC firm, only to get the recap with hours of confidential information he shouldn’t have been privy to.

A VC firm I had a Zoom meeting with used Otter AI to record the call, and after the meeting, it automatically emailed me the transcript, including hours of their private conversations afterward, where they discussed intimate, confidential details about their business.

— Alex Bilzerian (@alexbilz) September 26, 2024

5. Uncontrolled meeting recap sharing

In a 2022 Politico article, journalist Phelim Kine recounted receiving an unexpected email from Otter referencing a sensitive interview he had recorded with Uyghur activist Mustafa Aksu. The email inquired about the purpose of the recording, raising concerns about potential surveillance or data leaks. 

Otter.ai’s subsequent contradictory responses — initially confirming the email’s legitimacy, then advising Kine to disregard it — highlighted ambiguities in the company’s data handling practices. 

Is there a more secure AI note taker than Otter?

Yes — if you’re concerned about Otter’s security and privacy, a great option is Fellow.

Among Otter alternatives, Fellow is the most secure option and was built from the ground up with security and compliance in mind, and with the explicit use case if recurring meetings. 

Some of its security and privacy features include:

• SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance
• Transcriptions and other meeting data are never used to train AI models
• Meeting recaps are only shared with attendees unless Fellow is given explicit permission
• Pause and resume recording at any time
• Permanently redact from the recording, transcript, and summary
• Controls for your entire organization, including workspace policies and restrictions
• Admin-level settings such as SSO
• All data is stored securely
• Your data can be deleted upon request
• Learn more about Fellow’s security and compliance here

Fellow can join meetings in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet to record, transcribe, and summarize your meetings using AI. And, unlike Otter, all Fellow plans — even the free plan — includes video recording.

Many Fellow customers have switched after negative experiences with Otter. One such customer, Greg Zwickl is the Director of Account Management and Web Development at Go Fish Digital. His team members were using an assortment of AI note takers, including Otter, and that prompted Greg to step in.

“I knew that Otter did not have the best track record in terms of data privacy,” he said.

“That was what started my journey of vetting a bunch of different meeting notetakers, finding Fellow, testing it, and then moving forward with the enterprise plan.”

Final thoughts: Choose a secure AI note taker

AI note takers are a fantastic use of AI technology. Rather than scrambling to take notes by hand, you can focus on your meetings while the AI note taker takes care of the details.

However, it’s important to be aware that among AI note takers, Otter in particular has received a slew of complaints when it comes to privacy and security.

Don’t take unnecessary risks. If you want an AI note taker that comes with peace of mind, choose Fellow and experience the convenience of AI notes without security worries.

Get started today.