Recording Law for Phone & Video Calls in Oregon

In Oregon, you can record a phone call (landline or cell) without telling the other person. A participant who records their own call falls outside the restriction in ORS 165.540(1)(a), which only bars interception by someone who isn’t part of the call. The Oregon State Bar Formal Ethics Opinion No. 2005-156 (revised 2015) states as a general rule that Oregon law allows one party to a telephone conversation to record the conversation without notice to or consent of the other person. So if you’re on a regular phone call—whether it’s a work chat, a family update, or a quick catch-up—you’re allowed to hit record without saying so.

Video calls are treated differently. Oregon’s wiretapping statute defines "conversation" to expressly include "a communication occurring through a video conferencing program," such as Zoom, FaceTime, or Microsoft Teams (ORS 165.535(1), as amended by 2021 Or Laws ch 357 §1). For those calls, Oregon requires all participants to be told the call is being recorded, the same rule that applies to in-person conversations. The law changed in 2021 to move video calls out of the one-party-friendly phone-call category and into the all-party-notice category. So if you’re on a video call, you must let everyone know you’re recording before you start.

If you’re recording a face-to-face conversation—whether it’s in your home, at a café, or on a public sidewalk—Oregon requires that all participants in the conversation are specifically informed that their conversation is being obtained. The law doesn’t care whether the conversation happens in public or private. The en banc Ninth Circuit confirmed in Project Veritas v. Schmidt (Jan. 7, 2025) that Oregon’s all-party notice requirement applies even in public places like restaurants or parks, holding that 'Oregon's significant interest in protecting private conversations includes private conversations that occur in public or semi-public locations... even if a conversation may be overheard in public, Oregon maintains an interest in preventing its recording,' citing Katz v. United States and Carpenter v. United States. The only carve-outs are for specific public or semi-public proceedings, like government hearings, classes, or meetings where everyone present knows recording is happening. Outside those narrow exceptions, you must inform everyone before you record.

You can openly record an on-duty police officer from a lawful vantage point, as long as your recording is audible to normal unaided hearing and not concealed. Oregon’s law specifically allows this under ORS 165.540(5)(b). But secretly recording an on-duty officer is still a crime in Oregon and can be charged as a Class A misdemeanor under ORS 165.540(1)(c). The statute was upheld en banc by the Ninth Circuit against First Amendment challenges in 2025, so courts have confirmed that open recording is permitted while secret recording remains prohibited.

Oregon has a broad exception for recordings made inside your own home. If you are a subscriber to a telecommunication or radio service or a member of that subscriber’s family, you can record any conversation or call that occurs in that home—even if you’re not part of the conversation—without telling anyone. The statutory text of ORS 165.540(3) provides: 'The prohibitions in subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c) of this section do not apply to subscribers or members of their family who perform the acts prohibited in subsection (1) of this section in their homes.' Three Oregon Court of Appeals cases (State v. Evensen, 298 Or App 294, 447 P3d 23 (2019); State v. Rainey, 294 Or App 284, 431 P3d 98 (2018); Checkley v. Boyd, 198 Or App 110, 107 P3d 651 (2005)) have confirmed this exception applies even when the recording device isn’t tied to a phone service. For example, a family member could record a conversation between two visitors in the living room without notice. But this exception only covers your own home, not someone else’s house or a hotel room.

Breaking Oregon’s recording laws is a Class A misdemeanor under ORS 165.540(9). The statute also bars using recordings obtained in a manner prohibited by the law under ORS 165.540(1)(e), so even if you get a recording by breaking these rules, you can’t use it in court or share it without risking further penalties.

Imagine you’re on a weekly Zoom call with your team to go over project updates. You want to record the call so you can review it later. Because the statute defines a video call as a "conversation" under ORS 165.535(1), Oregon’s law treats it like an in-person conversation. You must tell everyone on the call that you’re recording before you start. If you don’t, you could violate Oregon’s all-party notice rule. But if it were a regular phone call instead of a video call, you could record without telling anyone—just make sure you’re one of the people on the call.

If your glasses capture or process voiceprints or other biometric data, Oregon’s Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) may apply. The law defines "biometric data" to include voiceprints and treats such data as "sensitive data" requiring opt-in consent before processing (ORS 646A.570(3)(a), 646A.570(18)(a)(D), 646A.578(2)(b)). Consent must be an affirmative act that clearly and conspicuously communicates freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous assent; inaction does not constitute consent (ORS 646A.570(6)). You must also provide a privacy notice listing the categories of sensitive data processed and allow consumers to revoke consent as easily as they gave it, stopping processing within 15 days of revocation (ORS 646A.578(1)(d), 646A.578(4)). OCPA applies to controllers processing personal data of 100,000+ Oregon consumers annually or 25,000+ consumers while deriving 25%+ of gross revenue from selling personal data (ORS 646A.572). Enforcement is by the Attorney General only, with civil penalties up to $7,500 per violation and a five-year statute of limitations (ORS 646A.589). Nonprofits had a delayed compliance date of July 1, 2025, which has now passed. A 2025 amendment re-added a 30-day AG cure-notice requirement effective June 24, 2025, narrowed to noncommercial educational broadcast stations only on January 1, 2026, and fully repealed on July 1, 2026, so for general commercial controllers no mandatory pre-suit cure notice currently applies.