Recording job interviews in Brazil: Law 9,296, the STF's participant rule and the LGPD

Recording a job interview you take part in is not a crime in Brazil: Law 9,296 of 1996 punishes unauthorized interception, but its Article 10-A, paragraph 1 says "there is no crime if the capture is made by one of the participants," and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has held that such a recording is lawful evidence. The General Data Protection Law (LGPD) is the rule that shapes how you record: you need a legal basis, a clear notice, and a valid transfer mechanism if the recording goes to a US tool or hiring manager. As of October 2026, recruiters should tell candidates, ask before recording, and use the ANPD's standard contractual clauses for transfers out of Brazil.

This page adds Brazil to our country series alongside Mexico, Canada, Germany and the UK. Quotations from Portuguese sources are our translations.

Brazil's rules at a glance

Is it legal to record a job interview in Brazil?

Yes, for a participant. Law 9,296 of July 24, 1996 regulates the interception of telephone communications, which requires a court order for criminal investigations (Article 1). Article 10 makes it a crime "to intercept telephone, computer or telematic communications, promote environmental eavesdropping or break judicial secrecy, without judicial authorization or with objectives not authorized by law." Article 10-A, added by Law 13,964 of 2019, makes unauthorized environmental capture of signals for criminal investigation a crime, and its paragraph 1 is short: "There is no crime if the capture is made by one of the participants."

The STF reached the same place earlier on the evidence question. Its Theme 237 thesis, fixed in RE 583,937, reads: "Evidence consisting of an environmental recording made by one of the participants without the other's knowledge is lawful." The flip side for employers is that a candidate may record an interview too, and that recording can be used as evidence. Interview as if you are on the record.

The participant rule does not cover a third party. A note-taking bot from an outside service that joins without everyone knowing is not "one of the participants" in any ordinary sense, so announce any tool that joins.

Which LGPD rules apply to a recorded interview?

The LGPD (Law 13,709 of 2018) applies to a recording, its transcript and any AI-written notes about the candidate. Article 7 lists the legal bases, and three are realistic for interviews:

• Consent (Article 7, I). Article 8 says it must be given "in writing or by another means that demonstrates the data subject's will," and paragraph 2 puts "the burden of proof that consent was obtained" on the controller. A spoken yes at the start of the call, noted in your system, is the minimum. Consent can be revoked at any time "by a free and facilitated procedure" (Article 8, paragraph 5).
• Pre-contractual steps (Article 7, V). Processing "when necessary for the performance of a contract or of preliminary procedures related to a contract to which the data subject is a party, at the request of the data subject." An application is arguably such a request; whether a full recording is necessary, rather than notes, is the weak point.
• Legitimate interests (Article 7, IX). Available with a balancing test; the ANPD's guide on legitimate interest explains how to document it. See also our page on legitimate interest in recruitment, which uses the similar GDPR test.

One caution applies to all three. Article 5, II defines sensitive personal data to include racial or ethnic origin, religious conviction, political opinion, union membership, health, sex life, and genetic or biometric data. Article 11 governs sensitive data and does not list legitimate interest among its bases. Interviews that drift into health or union membership produce sensitive data, so keep questions on the job and keep those topics out of your notes.

What must you tell the candidate?

Article 9 gives the data subject the right to "facilitated access" to information about the processing, including the specific purpose; the form and duration of processing; the controller's identity and contact details; information on shared use and its purpose; the responsibilities of the agents carrying out the processing; and the data subject's rights under Article 18. A candidate privacy notice linked from the invitation, plus a spoken line at the start of the call, covers this.

If software analyses the interview, Article 20 matters. It gives the data subject the right to request review of "decisions taken solely on the basis of automated processing of personal data that affect their interests," including decisions "intended to define their personal, professional" profile. Keep a person in the decision and say so in the notice.

Can candidates ask for the recording or ask you to delete it?

Article 18 lists the rights: confirmation that processing exists, access, correction, anonymization or deletion of unnecessary or excessive data, portability, deletion of data processed with consent, information on sharing, and information about the possibility of refusing consent and its consequences. Article 16 says personal data "shall be eliminated after the end of its processing," with exceptions including compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation. Separately, Article 7, VI allows processing "for the regular exercise of rights in judicial, administrative or arbitral proceedings," which is the usual basis for keeping a limited record while a dispute is possible. Our candidate data access requests guide and retention policy template help with both.

Does the LGPD apply if the interviewer is in the US?

Usually, yes. Article 3 applies the LGPD "regardless of ... the country of its headquarters or the country where the data are located" if, among other things, the personal data "were collected in the national territory," and paragraph 1 says data are considered collected in Brazil when the data subject "is there at the time of collection." A candidate joining from Brazil meets that test even if every interviewer is in the US. Your own state's recording law still applies to your side of the call; see two-party consent states.

Moving the recording out of Brazil is an international transfer under Article 33, which allows transfers only in listed cases. The ANPD's international transfer page explains the main routes: an adequacy decision, where the European Union is so far the only one recognized (Resolution No. 32/2026); or the ANPD's standard contractual clauses, approved with the transfer regulation in Resolution CD/ANPD No. 19 of August 23, 2024, which must be adopted without changes and which controllers had twelve months to incorporate. Article 33 also allows transfers with the data subject's "specific and highlighted" consent, or when necessary for the pre-contractual basis in Article 7, V. Fines for violations can reach 2% of revenue in Brazil, capped at R$50 million per infraction (Article 52, II).

Using AI note takers for interviews in Brazil

Ask any vendor where audio and transcripts are processed, whether it signs the ANPD clauses, whether it keeps audio, and whether it trains models on your recordings. Interview Signal, for example, shows a read-aloud consent line with a one-click pause and does not put a bot into the call; audio goes to a speech-to-text provider in short chunks and is not retained, while the transcript stays on the interviewer's computer and is still personal data under the LGPD. See is it legal to use AI note takers in interviews for the general questions.

A consent line for interviews in Brazil

"Antes de começarmos: eu gostaria de gravar e transcrever esta conversa
para poder me concentrar em você e ter um registro fiel das suas
respostas para avaliar sua candidatura. A gravação será usada apenas
neste processo seletivo e excluída [prazo] após a decisão. Você
concorda? Você pode recusar ou pedir para eu parar a qualquer momento,
sem nenhum impacto na sua candidatura."

("Before we start: I'd like to record and transcribe this conversation
so I can focus on you and keep an accurate record of your answers to
assess your application. The recording will be used only in this
selection process and deleted [period] after the decision. Do you
agree? You can say no or ask me to stop at any time, with no effect on
your application.")

If the recording will go to a tool or hiring manager outside Brazil, say so in the written notice. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Brazil

• Candidate told and asked before recording starts; the yes noted, because the controller bears the burden of proof.
• Legal basis chosen and documented: consent, pre-contractual steps or legitimate interest with a balancing test.
• Sensitive topics (health, union membership, religion) kept out of interviews and notes.
• Article 9 notice linked from the invitation; AI use and human review described.
• ANPD standard contractual clauses, unchanged, with any vendor or affiliate outside Brazil and the EU.
• Retention period set, with a limited record kept for possible claims and the rest deleted.
• Process for Article 18 requests: access, correction, deletion and revocation of consent.