Recording job interviews in Kuwait: Constitution Article 39, the CITRA law's bugging offense and the data privacy gap

Recording a job interview with a candidate in Kuwait should be done only with the candidate's knowledge and consent. Article 39 of the Constitution guarantees the secrecy of telephone correspondence, Article 51 of Law No. 37 of 2014 (as replaced by Law No. 98 of 2015) says private communications "may not be subjected to control in any manner whatsoever" without judicial permission, and Article 78 punishes using bugging devices with up to one year in prison and a fine of 500 to 5,000 dinars, doubled for recording calls. As far as we could find on official sites, Kuwait has no general data protection law covering private employers as of November 2026; CITRA's Data Privacy Protection Regulation binds only licensed service providers.

This page adds Kuwait to our Gulf series alongside the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, all of which have personal data laws. It is for recruiters, agency consultants and hiring managers who interview candidates located in Kuwait by video or phone, including from the US. Because Kuwait is the gap in that series, the page also says what a careful employer should do where no statute spells it out.

Kuwait's rules at a glance

Is it legal to record a job interview in Kuwait?

Yes, openly and with consent. No Kuwaiti text we found speaks to an employer recording an interview it takes part in, so the answer comes from the rules on the secrecy of communications. Article 51 of Law No. 37 of 2014, which established CITRA, was replaced in 2015. In CITRA's English translation of Law No. 98 of 2015 it now reads: "Telephone calls and the private communications shall be considered as one of the confidential matters which sanctity may not be violated, and may not be subjected to control in any manner whatsoever except upon getting a permission from the competent judicial Authority."

Article 78 adds the penalty that matters most for recruiters: "Whoever possesses or uses bugging devices or instruments of whatever type shall be punished by imprisonment for no more than one year and penalty of no more than five thousand dinars and no less than five hundred dinars. The penalty shall be doubled against anyone who uses such instruments to record or transfer talks conducted via the telecommunication devices." The devices and tools are confiscated and "their recordings shall be deleted and destroyed."

The law does not define a bugging device, and we found no official guidance on whether the record button in a meeting app, or a phone's call recorder, counts. The text is aimed at secret listening. A recording the candidate has been told about and agreed to is far from that, while a hidden one sits close to it. Ask at the start, keep a note of the answer, and stop if the candidate says no.

What does the Constitution protect?

Article 39 of the Constitution provides: "Freedom of postal, telegraphic and telephone correspondence is protected and its secrecy is guaranteed; correspondence may not be monitored, nor its secrecy disclosed, except in the circumstances set out in the law and by the procedures it prescribes" (our translation). Law No. 37 of 2014 also cites, in its preamble and in Article 3(M), Law No. 9 of 2001 "concerning the Misuse of Telephone Communications Devices and Wiretaps" (CITRA's translation of the title). We could not load an official text of that law, so check its current wording with Kuwaiti counsel before relying on any summary of it.

Is there a data protection law that applies to employers?

Not a general one that we could find. Kuwait's dedicated data privacy rules are the Data Privacy Protection Regulation issued by CITRA under Resolution No. 26 of 2024 of February 7, 2024, which replaced the 2021 regulation issued under Resolution No. 42 of 2021. Article 1 says it applies to "all service providers licensed by the Authority" that collect, process and store personal data, "whether the processing takes place inside or outside the State of Kuwait" (our translation). A service provider is defined as a person licensed to provide telecommunications services to the public or to operate a network or internet service, including information or content providers that offer services over the network. An employer or recruitment agency is not a CITRA licensee because it interviews people.

The regulation is still a useful benchmark, and it binds any Kuwaiti telecom, hosting or internet provider in your chain. Its definition of personal data expressly includes "any audio file, including the person's voice." Licensees must give their terms "in English and Arabic" and obtain consent (Article 2), state the purpose and legal basis of collection and the retention period (Article 4(2)), say where data is stored inside or outside Kuwait (Article 4(7)), notify the person if they intend to transfer the data outside Kuwait (Article 4(9)), delete it when the relationship ends (Article 4(10)), and report breaches to CITRA within 24 hours (Article 6). Penalties follow Law No. 37 of 2014 (Article 7).

What should you tell the candidate?

With no employer-specific statute, use the notice you would need in the neighboring Gulf states, which covers the points Kuwait's own rules care about: who you are, that you will record or transcribe, why, who will see the recording (the client, the hiring manager, a vendor), where it is stored, how long you keep it, and that the candidate may refuse without penalty. Put it in the invitation, repeat it at the start of the call, and offer it in Arabic and English as CITRA requires of its licensees. Keep the questions job-related, and leave religion, health, family plans and similar subjects out of the interview and the notes.

Can you share the recording with a client or post a clip?

Share it only with the people you named when the candidate agreed. Article 51 treats private communications as confidential, and a recording passed beyond what the candidate accepted is the kind of use a court could see as violating that "sanctity." Never post interview clips, and do not forward recordings to colleagues who are not part of the hiring decision. A safer pattern for agencies is to send the client a written summary with the candidate's key quotes, and keep the audio inside your own system.

What if you interview a candidate in Kuwait from the US?

The Kuwaiti rules above protect the candidate's side of the call, and your own state's law governs your side; see two-party consent states. If your company is established in the EU, the GDPR applies to your processing of the Kuwaiti candidate's data regardless of where the candidate sits. We found no Kuwaiti rule restricting a private employer from storing a recording on US servers, but if a CITRA-licensed provider hosts or carries your data, it must tell users where the data is kept and before it moves it abroad.

How long can you keep recordings, and can candidates get them?

No Kuwaiti statute we found sets a retention period for interview recordings or gives candidates a right to a copy. Set a period tied to the hiring decision and any dispute window, delete audio before notes, and answer a candidate who asks what you hold. Our guide on how long to keep interview recordings gives workable defaults that also satisfy the stricter laws your other candidates may be under.

Can you use AI note takers or transcription?

Yes, with the candidate's consent and the same notice. Ask the vendor where it stores audio and transcripts, how long it keeps them, whether it trains models on your interviews, and whether a bot will join the call under its own name. Interview Signal, for example, captures audio on the interviewer's own computer with no bot joining the call, shows a read-aloud consent line with a one-click pause, and does not retain audio after transcription; the transcript should still be handled under the rules above.

A consent line for interviews with candidates in Kuwait

قبل أن نبدأ: أودّ أن أستأذنك في [تسجيل هذه المقابلة / استخدام برنامج
يحوّل المحادثة إلى نص مكتوب] حتى أوثّق إجاباتك بدقة. سيُستخدم
[التسجيل / النص] لهذا التوظيف فقط، ولن يطّلع عليه إلا [العميل / مدير
التوظيف]، ويُحفظ لدى [مزوّد الخدمة، البلد]، وسيُحذف خلال [المدة] من
اتخاذ القرار. هل توافق؟ يحق لك الرفض أو طلب إيقاف التسجيل في أي وقت،
ولن يؤثر ذلك على طلبك.

(Before we start: I'd like your permission to [record this interview /
use software that turns the conversation into text] so I document your
answers accurately. The [recording / text] will be used for this
recruitment only; only [the client / the hiring manager] will see it;
it is stored by [vendor, country] and will be deleted within [period]
of the decision. Do you agree? You may refuse or ask me to stop
recording at any time, and it won't affect your application.)

Send the same information in the invitation so the candidate can decide before the call. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Kuwait

• Consent asked for and noted before any recording or live transcription starts; no covert recording, ever.
• Notice in the invitation, in Arabic and English: purpose, who sees the recording, where it is stored, retention.
• Only calls you take part in are recorded; nothing left running after you leave.
• Questions kept job-related; religion, health and family details kept out of notes and scorecards.
• Recordings shared only as announced; never posted or forwarded outside the hiring team.
• Vendor's storage location, retention and model-training terms checked.
• Retention period set and followed; candidate requests answered.