Recording job interviews in Chile: Article 161-A, written consent today and the Law 21,719 changeover

In Chile, get the candidate's authorization before you record or transcribe a job interview. Article 161-A of the Penal Code punishes anyone who, "without the authorization of the person affected," records private conversations or communications in private premises or places not open to the public, and the current data protection law, Law 19,628, requires consent that is express, informed of the purpose and "in writing." Law 21,719 rewrites that law and creates a Personal Data Protection Agency from December 1, 2026, but a bill the Senate approved on October 28, 2026 would move the date to October 15, 2027. This is the position as of November 2026.

This page adds Chile to our country series alongside Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. It is for recruiters, staffing firms and hiring managers who interview candidates located in Chile by video or phone, including from the US. Quotations from Chilean sources are our translations from Spanish.

Chile's rules at a glance

Is it a crime to record a job interview in Chile?

It can be, if you do it without the candidate's authorization. Article 161-A of the Penal Code punishes anyone who, "in private premises or places that are not freely open to the public, without the authorization of the person affected and by any means, captures, intercepts, records or reproduces conversations or communications of a private nature." The penalty is reclusión menor in any of its degrees, which Article 25 sets at sixty-one days to five years, plus a fine of 50 to 500 monthly tax units (UTM). The same penalty applies to whoever spreads such recordings, and a person who both obtains and spreads them faces the maximum degree and a fine of 100 to 500 UTM. The only exception in the article is for people authorized by law or a court.

Two features matter for recruiters. First, the offense turns on "the authorization of the person affected," and unlike Colombia's interception offense or Austria's section 120, the text contains no carve-out for a participant who records their own conversation; we found no official source that reads one in. Second, it applies in "private premises or places that are not freely open to the public," which describes a candidate taking a call from home or an office. Article 19 of the Constitution backs this up: number 4 protects private life and "the protection of personal data," and number 5 makes "every form of private communication" inviolable, allowing communications to be intercepted or recorded only "in the cases and forms determined by law." The safe course is a clear yes from the candidate before the recording starts.

When does Law 21,719 take effect?

Law 21,719, published on December 13, 2024, rewrites Law 19,628 and creates the Personal Data Protection Agency. Its first transitory article says the changes take effect "on the first day of the twenty-fourth month after the publication of this law in the Official Gazette," which is December 1, 2026; the BCN shows the amended Law 19,628 with that date.

On September 1, 2026 the government sent Congress a bill, Boletín 18.623-07, to amend Law 21,719. The Senate's record shows it approved in general and in particular on October 28, 2026, and the Senate's official letter to the Chamber of Deputies (No. 355/SEC/26) replaces the twenty-fourth-month formula with "October 15, 2027." The Chamber received the bill on November 2, 2026 with an "immediate discussion" urgency. Until it is enacted and published, December 1, 2026 stands. Plan for either date; the practical steps below work under both.

What does the data protection law require today?

Until the new text applies, Article 4 of Law 19,628 says personal data may be processed only when a law authorizes it "or the data subject expressly consents." The person "must be duly informed of the purpose of the storage of their personal data," and "the authorization must be in writing"; it can be revoked, also in writing. None of the article's exceptions covers interviewing candidates. For a recorded interview, that points to a written agreement before the call, for example in reply to the invitation, confirmed on the recording.

What changes under Law 21,719?

• Consent (new Article 12). It must be "free, informed and specific" as to its purposes, given "in advance and unequivocally," by "a verbal, written" or equivalent electronic declaration or a clear affirmative act. It can be revoked at any time, and "it is for the controller to prove" that it had consent.
• Other lawful bases (new Article 13). Processing is also lawful when necessary "for the execution of pre-contractual measures adopted at the request of the data subject," or for the controller's legitimate interests if the person's rights are not affected; the person can always ask which legitimate interest is relied on.
• Pre-contractual data must go (new Article 14(d)). Controllers must "delete or anonymize" personal data "obtained for the execution of pre-contractual measures," which is how most candidate data starts.
• Transparency (new Article 14 ter). A public policy listing, among other things, the purposes, the legal basis, the recipients, transfers abroad, the retention period and any automated decisions.
• Sensitive data (new Article 16). Express consent, written, verbal or electronic. The definition includes health, biometric data, union membership, religious beliefs and "socioeconomic situation." Keep interviews on the job.
• Automated decisions (new Article 8 bis). A right to object to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that significantly affect the person, with rights to an explanation and human intervention even where an exception applies.
• Enforcement. The Agency supervises compliance, and fines reach 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 UTM for minor, serious and very serious infringements (new Article 35). We found no guidance from the Agency as of November 2026.

The new bases do not remove the Penal Code's requirement. Even where the pre-contractual basis covers your notes, the recording itself needs the candidate's authorization under Article 161-A, so consent remains the practical basis for the recording.

Can candidates ask for the recording or the transcript?

Yes. Under today's law, if the controller does not answer within two business days, the person can go to a civil court (Law 19,628, Article 16). Under the new text, the rights are access, rectification, deletion, objection, portability and blocking (new Article 4). Access covers the data and its origin, the purposes, the recipients, the retention period and, for automated decisions, "meaningful information about the logic applied" (new Article 5). The controller must answer in writing "within thirty calendar days," extendable once by thirty, and must tell the person they have thirty business days to complain to the Agency if refused (new Article 11). Our candidate data access requests guide has a workflow.

How long can you keep interview recordings?

The new proportionality principle (Article 3(c)) says data "may be kept only for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes of the processing, after which they must be deleted or anonymized," and "a longer period requires legal authorization or the consent of the data subject." Combined with Article 14(d), that means a short period for rejected candidates, and separate consent if you want to keep them in a talent pool. Our retention policy template gives the structure.

What if the interviewer or the tool is outside Chile?

The new law applies to controllers and processors established in Chile, to processors acting for a Chilean controller wherever they are, and to foreign controllers whose processing is aimed at offering goods or services to people in Chile or monitoring their behavior (new Article 1 bis). A foreign controller processing data of people residing in Chile must keep an email or other contact channel for them and the Agency (Article 14). A transcription or AI vendor is a tercero mandatario (processor) and needs a contract setting the purpose, duration, data and duties; a vendor that uses the data for another purpose, such as training its models, is treated as a controller (new Article 15 bis). International transfers need an adequate country, contract clauses or another mechanism with adequate safeguards, or one of the listed exceptions for specific, non-routine transfers (new Articles 27 and 28). The Agency decides which countries are adequate; we found no list as of November 2026. If you interview from the US, your own state's law also applies; see two-party consent states.

What should staffing firms know?

Article 2 of the Labor Code treats as discrimination distinctions based on a long list of grounds, from age and nationality to health and personal appearance, and says job offers that make any of them a requirement are discriminatory. Once a candidate is hired, Article 154 ter requires the employer to keep "all the information and private data of the worker" confidential, and Article 183-Y puts the same duty on a user company that receives workers from a temporary services firm. Share recordings with a client only with the candidate's agreement; see can recruiters share interview recordings with clients.

Can you use AI note takers for interviews in Chile?

Yes, with the candidate's authorization, a processor contract and notice of the tool. Interview Signal, for example, runs on the interviewer's own computer with no bot joining the call, shows a read-aloud consent line with a one-click pause, and sends audio to a speech-to-text provider in short chunks that are not retained; the transcript stays on the interviewer's computer and is still personal data. See is it legal to use AI note takers in interviews for the questions to ask any vendor.

A consent line for interviews in Chile

"Antes de comenzar: en [Empresa] queremos grabar y transcribir esta
entrevista para registrar bien sus respuestas y evaluar su postulación
a este cargo. La usaremos solo para este proceso de selección [y la
compartiremos con (cliente)], y la eliminaremos [plazo] después de la
decisión. Puede pedir acceso, rectificación o eliminación escribiendo
a [correo]; nuestra política de datos está en [enlace]. ¿Nos autoriza
a grabar? Puede decir que no o pedirme que detenga la grabación en
cualquier momento; no afectará su postulación."

("Before we begin: at [Company] we'd like to record and transcribe
this interview to capture your answers accurately and assess your
application for this role. We'll use it only for this selection
process [and share it with (client)], and delete it [period] after the
decision. You can ask for access, correction or deletion by writing to
[email]; our data policy is at [link]. Do you authorize us to record?
You can say no or ask me to stop the recording at any time; it won't
affect your application.")

While Law 19,628's writing requirement applies, send the same text in the invitation and keep the candidate's written reply. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Chile

• Candidate's authorization obtained before recording starts; a written yes kept while Law 19,628's current text applies.
• Effective date of Law 21,719 checked on the BCN before December 1, 2026.
• Data policy published with the Article 14 ter items; purposes, client sharing and retention named.
• Sensitive topics, including socioeconomic situation, kept out of interviews and notes.
• Processor contract with any transcription or AI vendor; no vendor training without consent.
• Human review of any automated scoring; process to answer requests within 30 calendar days.
• Deletion or anonymization of rejected candidates' recordings on a set schedule.

Also hiring in Latin America? See Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.