recording consent notice

1. what the feature does

You press record at the start of an appointment. Lifelong captures the audio, and when you stop:

1. The audio is uploaded and stored securely
2. It is sent to a specialist transcription provider, which returns a transcript with different speakers separated
3. We immediately instruct that provider to delete their copy, and record that the deletion succeeded. If it fails, an automated process retries until it does
4. Once we have confirmed the transcript, the original audio is deleted. If transcription fails, we keep the audio so you don’t lose the appointment, and you can delete it yourself
5. An AI summary and a list of suggested follow-ups are generated from the transcript
6. The transcript and summary are saved to the health record of the person the appointment is about, and are visible to whoever that person has chosen to share with

Location. When you press record, Lifelong takes a single location reading so the record can show which clinic you were at. We store the coordinates and the place name and address of that single reading. There is no background tracking. Declining the location permission is a completely normal way to use this feature and everything else still works.

Length. Recordings are capped at 60 minutes. Recordings under a minute don’t count against your allowance, because a mis-tap should not cost you anything.

2. your responsibility to obtain consent

Recording law varies by state and by country, and in many places recording a conversation without everyone’s consent is a crime, a civil wrong, or both.

By using this feature, you agree that:

• You will obtain permission from every person present before you begin recording — including the clinician, and including anyone who joins partway through
• You are solely responsible for complying with every recording, wiretapping, eavesdropping and surveillance law that applies where you are
• You will stop recording immediately if anyone objects or withdraws permission
• You will not record where the venue, provider or institution prohibits it
• You will indemnify Lifelong for any claim arising from a recording you made, as set out in Terms of Service §17

Lifelong does not obtain consent on your behalf, cannot verify that you obtained it, and takes no responsibility for recordings you make.

3. where consent is required — general guidance only

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice, and it may be out of date. Laws change. If you are unsure, ask everyone’s permission — which is what we recommend everywhere, always.

United States. Federal law and most states permit recording with the consent of one party (you). However a substantial number of states require the consent of all parties. These have included California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington — and the details differ from state to state. Where the people on a call are in different states, more than one state’s law may apply, and the stricter usually governs.

Australia. Each state and territory has its own surveillance devices or listening devices legislation, and several prohibit recording a private conversation without the consent of all parties.

United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere. Rules differ. Recording a private conversation without consent may be unlawful, and even where recording is lawful, sharing the recording may not be.

Clinical settings add a second layer. Hospitals, clinics and individual practitioners often have their own policies about recording, independent of what the law allows. A policy can prohibit what the law permits.

The rule that works everywhere: ask, and don’t record if anyone says no.

4. how to ask

It is less awkward than people expect. Something like:

“Would it be alright if I record this? I want to make sure I remember everything properly and can share it with my family.”

Most clinicians agree readily — many prefer it, because a patient who remembers the instructions is a patient who follows them. If someone declines, respect it. You can still take notes, and you can add them to Lifelong afterwards.

If you are recording an appointment for a family member, ask them too. It is their appointment and their body.

5. accuracy

Transcripts are produced by automated speech recognition and are not verbatim records. Errors are common with medical terminology, drug names, numbers, accents, crosstalk and background noise. A misheard dose or a dropped “not” reverses the meaning.

Summaries and suggested follow-ups are AI-generated and can contain mistakes, including confident ones.

Do not rely on a transcript or summary as an accurate record of medical advice. Use it as a memory aid, and confirm anything that matters with your clinician. See the Medical Disclaimer.

6. who can see a recording

A recording belongs to the health record of the person the appointment is about, and its visibility follows that person’s sharing settings — not the settings of whoever pressed record.

If you record an appointment for a family member who does not have a Lifelong account, the Family Sharing and Authorized Representative Terms §3 apply: you are representing that you have authority to keep their health information.

7. deleting a recording

You can delete any recording and its transcript at any time in the app. Deletion takes effect immediately in the app, and we remove the audio, the transcript, the summary and the search index from our live systems promptly and without undue delay; encrypted backups expire within 7 days. The transcription provider’s copy was already deleted at step 3 above.

8. third parties in your recording

A recording contains other people’s voices and, usually, their words about your health — and sometimes their own. We process it as your health information because it is part of your health record. The obligation to those other people is yours: you asked their permission, and you should not share the recording more widely than they would expect.

If someone believes they were recorded without consent, they can contact privacy@trylifelong.com. We will investigate and may remove the recording.

9. acknowledgement

Before your first recording, the app shows you this notice and requires you to confirm that you have read it and that you understand it is your responsibility to obtain the consent of everyone present. We record that acknowledgement with a timestamp.

Questions: privacy@trylifelong.com