QLD: Q&A What laws apply to recording, publishing, or transcribing body corporate meetings?

This article is about the legal and privacy considerations for recording, publishing, or transcribing body corporate meetings, including the use of AI tools and the rules around consent and disclosure.

Question: What are the privacy or legal considerations around the use of AI to record and summarise meetings, particularly given that these tools may store data or use it to inform broader machine learning systems?

In our scheme, an owner who is not on the committee has made an unauthorised recording of a committee meeting without permission. Also, an owner trespassed on a neighbour’s lot to take photographs of fences and sent the images to the committee. Should the committee formally record these incidents in the meeting minutes, and are there any legal implications to consider?

We would also like to know:

• Are owners who attend a committee meeting as observers considered “involved” in the conversation for the purposes of recording laws?
• If a recording is made with or without consent, what rules apply to publishing or communicating that recording?
• Some buildings publish recordings of their committee meetings on platforms such as YouTube or Facebook. Is this permissible, or do they need specific disclaimers, and if so, in what form?
• Are there privacy or legal considerations around using AI technologies, such as automated transcription tools, to record and summarise meetings, given that these tools may store data or use it for machine learning?

Answer: Generally, video recording people without their consent where they would expect to be afforded privacy is unlawful. An AI transcription tool would be a type of listening device.

A committee must ensure full and accurate minutes of its meetings are taken. That includes names of those present, details of proxies and submitted motions, correspondence and documents tabled, and votes on motions. The committee would not be required to record in the minutes that an unauthorised recording occurred. The committee would be required to record in the minutes any documents (which would include images) that were tabled at the meeting.

Privacy is a technical area of the law with specific language. The full breadth of the law cannot be summarised without losing some meaning. In Queensland, a participant in a private conversation may use a listening device to record that conversation, even if the other parties to that conversation do not know the conversation is being recorded. Any such recording can only be communicated to another person in limited circumstances. Assuming a committee meeting is a private conversation, an observer at a committee meeting is a party to that conversation if that observer is a person:

1. by or to whom words are spoken in the course of that conversation (Involved Persons);
2. who overhears, records, monitors or listens to the words in that conversation with the express or implied consent of the Involved Persons.

How a recording may be used differs slightly depending on whether the recording was lawfully obtained. A private conversation that has been unlawfully listened to cannot be published or communicated to another unless it is to:

1. a party to that conversation;
2. a person to whom a party to that conversation expressly or impliedly consents;
3. in legal proceedings about a breach of the relevant Queensland privacy law;
4. to prevent a person from publishing knowledge of a private conversation.

A private conversation that has been lawfully listened to by a party to that private conversation cannot be published or communicated to another unless it is:

1. to another party to that conversation;
2. to a person to whom all parties to that conversation expressly or impliedly consent;
3. in any legal proceedings;
4. not more than is reasonably necessary to protect lawful interests, perform a duty, or the public interest.

Generally, video recording people without their consent where they would expect to be afforded privacy is unlawful. An AI transcription tool would be a type of listening device. The primary risk with transcription tools is the ability to maintain the confidentiality of personal data.

Brendan Pitman
Grace Lawyers
E: brendan.pitman@gracelawyers.com.au
P: 07 5554 8560

This post appears in the September 2025 edition of The QLD Strata Magazine

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Read next:

• QLD: Q&A Body Corporate Committee Communications
• QLD: Q&A Meeting Notice Periods and Electronic Meetings
• QLD: Q&A Body Corporate Decision Making

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