Recording Law for Voiceprints & Biometric Data in Arkansas

Arkansas does not have a standalone biometric-privacy statute like Illinois’ BIPA or California’s CUBI. The only biometric-related rule in Arkansas is tucked inside the state’s breach-notification law, the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPA defines “biometric data” to include “voiceprint analysis,” but it does not require consent before collecting a voiceprint, nor does it impose retention limits or disclosure duties. The only duty it creates is a post-breach notification obligation enforced by the Attorney General if a voiceprint is compromised. In practice, this means you can enroll an Arkansas user’s voiceprint without asking for written consent or posting a retention policy, as long as you treat the voiceprint as “personal information” under PIPA and follow the Attorney General’s breach-notification rules if a breach ever occurs.

Arkansas’s wiretap statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120(a), makes it unlawful to intercept and record a "wire, landline, oral, telephonic communication, or wireless communication" unless the recorder is a party to the communication or one party has given prior consent. The statute is location-neutral: it applies the same one-party-consent rule whether the conversation happens in person, on the phone, or over a video call. Arkansas courts have applied this rule directly to recorded phone calls without any privacy-expectation screening or definitional gate, so even loud or obviously public exchanges still require at least one participant’s consent if the wearer is not part of the conversation. The statute contains no reasonable-expectation-of-privacy qualifier and no public-place carve-out, meaning a conversation’s publicness or audibility does not remove it from the statute’s coverage.

Arkansas has a separate statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 21-1-106, that explicitly bars police from prohibiting someone from using a recording device in a public place or on private property where the person is lawfully present. Officers may not delete recorded data or seize the device unless it is evidence of a crime or exigent circumstances exist. However, the Eighth Circuit—where Arkansas sits—has not recognized a clearly established First Amendment right to record on-duty police, creating a split with several other circuits. In practice, this means the state statute gives stronger protection than the uncertain federal constitutional landscape, but officers still have a qualified-immunity defense in some situations.

Arkansas’s wiretap statute only covers the interception of audio communications. Silent video recording—with no audio—is not restricted by § 5-60-120. The only Arkansas statute that restricts video recording is the video voyeurism law, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101, which targets secretly recording someone in a private area where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom or bedroom. For audio-only recording, the one-party-consent rule applies regardless of where the conversation takes place.

Violating Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120 is a Class A misdemeanor. The statute’s penalty section, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120(b), sets the offense level at a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine up to $2,500. Arkansas courts have held that evidence obtained from an unlawful private recording remains admissible in court because the state’s exclusionary rule applies only to government actions, not private individuals. The statute also includes limited exceptions for law-enforcement assistance, telecom-utility technical assistance, and court-ordered intercepts under 18 U.S.C. § 2703 or pen-register orders, but these do not create general carve-outs for public or loud conversations.

The only Arkansas statute that criminalizes covert video recording is the video voyeurism law, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-16-101. This statute prohibits secretly recording another person in a private area of a residence or other structure where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom, bedroom, or changing area, without knowledge or consent. A first or second offense is a Class D felony, while a third offense or if the victim is under 14, it is a Class C felony. For mobile or concealed recording of a person’s body parts in such areas, the offense is a Class B misdemeanor, rising to a Class A misdemeanor if the recording is distributed or the offender is a repeat violator. This statute targets covert, intimate or voyeuristic recording and is unlikely to be implicated by general wearable-device use cases unless the device is used to secretly film someone undressing or in similarly private contexts.

Imagine you’re wearing a recording device in a public park and a loud argument breaks out between two strangers. Under Arkansas law, you can record the argument only if you are one of the people speaking or if at least one of the participants has consented to being recorded. The fact that the argument is loud and in public does not, by itself, let you record it without consent. If you are not part of the conversation and no one has agreed to be recorded, you would need to stop recording or risk violating § 5-60-120. This remains true even if the exchange is clearly audible to bystanders, because Arkansas’s statute contains no public-place exception or reasonable-expectation-of-privacy gate.

Violating Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120 is a Class A misdemeanor. The statute’s penalty section, Ark. Code Ann. § 5-60-120(b), sets the offense level at a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine up to $2,500. Arkansas courts have held that evidence obtained from an unlawful private recording remains admissible in court because the state’s exclusionary rule applies only to government actions, not private individuals. Enforcement is primarily criminal, not civil, and the only civil duty tied to biometric data is the post-breach notification obligation under PIPA if a voiceprint is later compromised.