Recording job interviews in Romania: ANSPDCP fines, Law 190/2018 and what to tell candidates

In Romania, the published rules that most clearly govern recording a job interview come from data protection law. The GDPR applies in full, Law 190/2018 adds strict conditions for monitoring employees through electronic communications, and the data protection authority (ANSPDCP) has fined employers for recording staff voices without a legal basis or proper notice. In March 2026 it ordered one company to set a clear legal basis, limited storage periods and complete prior notice before recording meetings with employees. Tell the candidate before you record, ask, and keep audio briefly. This is the position as of November 2026.

This page adds Romania to our country series alongside Poland, Austria and Germany. It is for recruiters, agency consultants and hiring managers who interview candidates located in Romania by video or phone, including from the US. It relies on the ANSPDCP's own publications; quotations from them are our translations from Romanian.

Romania's rules at a glance

What has the ANSPDCP decided about recorded conversations at work?

The authority publishes its sanctions on its sanctions page, and several deal with recording people's voices at work. They are the closest Romanian guidance we found to an interview recording:

• Recorded disciplinary meetings (March 2026). Investigating Domeniul Public și Privat SA after an employee's complaint, the ANSPDCP fined the company for using a body camera without proper information to staff, issued a warning for "incomplete information on the audio-video recording of disciplinary investigation meetings," and ordered it to ensure "a clearly established legal basis" under Articles 6, 7 and, where relevant, 9 and 10 GDPR for recording those meetings, "limited storage periods" by reference to the purpose, "complete and appropriate prior information to all data subjects," and respect for their rights, "including the right of access to these recordings" under Article 15 (press release).
• Recording staff discussions (October 2021). Glove Technology SRL was fined 24,745 lei (the equivalent of 5,000 euros) for an audio-video system in its offices that supervised employees and recorded "the discussions between them," without showing any Article 6 basis: consent, a legal obligation or an overriding legitimate interest. It was ordered to stop the processing and delete the records (press release).
• No prior notice, no copies (2025). In an investigation completed in May 2025, SC Piramida Trade Invest SRL was fined for monitoring employees by audio-video systems without "mandatory, complete and explicit prior information," without showing it had first tried less intrusive means, and for not answering an employee's access, erasure and objection requests within a month, including a request for copies of the recordings (press release).

The March 2026 order reads like a checklist for interviews: a legal basis you can name, a storage period tied to the purpose, notice to the person before the recording, and a way to give them a copy.

What does Law 190/2018 add for monitoring your own staff?

Article 5 of Law 190/2018, as quoted in the ANSPDCP's question-and-answer guide on the GDPR (question 61), allows processing employees' data at work through "monitoring systems by means of electronic communications and/or video surveillance," for the employer's legitimate interests, only if all of the following are met:

• the employer's legitimate interests are "thoroughly justified and prevail" over the employees' interests, rights and freedoms;
• the employer has given employees "mandatory, complete and explicit prior information";
• the employer "consulted the trade union or, where applicable, the employees' representatives before introducing the monitoring systems";
• other, less intrusive ways of reaching the employer's aim "have not previously proven effective"; and
• the storage period is proportionate to the purpose, "but not longer than 30 days," except where the law expressly provides otherwise or in duly justified cases.

The guide adds that before installing such systems the employer must assess the risks to establish whether they are necessary, and must keep "thoroughly reasoned documentation" showing why its legitimate interest prevails. These conditions protect employees, not candidates, but they bite on recruiting teams: a phone system or interview tool that records or analyzes every recruiter call is monitoring the recruiters through electronic communications. Consult employee representatives, document the necessity, and do not keep that material longer than the law allows.

What should you tell the candidate, and on what basis?

A recording or transcript of an interview is the candidate's personal data, so you need a lawful basis under Article 6 GDPR, usually steps taken at the candidate's request before a contract or legitimate interests (see legitimate interest in recruitment), and the Article 13 information when you collect it. The 2021 and 2025 cases turned on exactly those two points: no legal basis the employer could show, and no complete notice before the recording. Because the candidate is in a position of dependence, make refusal genuinely free of consequences if you ask for agreement, and offer handwritten notes as the alternative.

Can candidates get the recording?

Yes. In 2023 the ANSPDCP fined Vodafone România SA 4,961 lei (the equivalent of 1,000 euros) because it did not show it had answered, within 30 days, a person's request for "certain recordings of the conversations with its call center," and reminded controllers that under Article 15(3) GDPR the controller "provides a copy of the personal data undergoing processing," in "a commonly used electronic form" where the request was made electronically (press release). Expect interview recordings to be requested the same way; our candidate data access requests guide has a workflow.

How long can you keep recordings and transcripts?

We found no Romanian rule that fixes a period for candidate recordings. The 30-day limit in article 5 of Law 190/2018 applies to monitoring employees, not to interviews, but the ANSPDCP's March 2026 order asked for storage periods "limited by reference to the purpose," which is the GDPR's storage-limitation principle. Set a period tied to the hiring decision and any dispute window, keep written notes longer than audio if you need a record, document why, and delete on schedule. Our retention policy template gives the structure.

What about the Criminal Code and the Civil Code?

Romanian criminal and civil law may also apply to recordings of conversations. We could not load the official consolidated texts from the Ministry of Justice's legislation portal (legislatie.just.ro) when this page was written, so we do not summarize them, and we do not say whether, or on what conditions, they let a participant record. Until a Romanian lawyer has confirmed the current wording for your situation, treat the candidate's prior agreement as required, which the data protection rules above point to anyway.

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

An employer or agency established in the EU is covered by the GDPR under Article 3(1); a US company with no EU establishment is covered only where Article 3(2) applies. Your own state's law governs your side of the call; see two-party consent states. A recording or transcript sent to a US vendor needs a transfer basis under Chapter V of the GDPR, such as the Commission's adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (certified recipients only) or standard contractual clauses.

Can you use AI note takers or transcription?

Yes, with notice before you start, the candidate's agreement, a documented legal basis, a transfer basis for any vendor outside the EU, and short retention. Ask the vendor where it stores audio and transcripts, how long it keeps them, and whether it trains models on your interviews. A tool that scores or ranks candidates is likely to be a high-risk system under the EU AI Act. 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 is still personal data under the rules above.

A consent line for interviews in Romania

Înainte să începem: aș dori să [înregistrez discuția noastră /
folosesc un program care transcrie discuția], ca să notez exact
răspunsurile dumneavoastră. Vom folosi [înregistrarea / transcrierea]
doar pentru acest proces de recrutare, o vom pune doar la dispoziția
[clientului / managerului care face angajarea] și o vom șterge după
[perioadă] de la încheierea procesului. Sunteți de acord? Puteți
refuza sau îmi puteți cere să opresc oricând, fără nicio consecință
pentru candidatura dumneavoastră.

(Before we start: I'd like to [record our conversation / use software
that transcribes the conversation] so I note your answers exactly.
We'll use the [recording / transcript] only for this recruitment
process, make it available only to [the client / the hiring manager]
and delete it [period] after the process ends. Do you agree? You can
say no or ask me to stop at any time, with no consequence for your
application.)

Put the same information, with the Article 13 details, in the invitation and your candidate privacy notice. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Romania

• Candidate told before recording or live transcription starts, asked, and the answer noted.
• Article 6 basis documented; Article 13 notice in the invitation, naming any client who receives the recording.
• Storage period set by reference to the purpose; audio deleted early.
• Access requests answered within one month with a copy in a common electronic format.
• If recruiter calls are recorded or analyzed: article 5 conditions met, representatives consulted, 30-day limit observed unless justified.
• Criminal and civil law position confirmed with a Romanian lawyer.
• US vendors certified under the Data Privacy Framework or covered by standard contractual clauses.