Slovakia interview recording laws: Civil Code consent, the recording offense and what you may ask

In Slovakia, recording a job interview needs the candidate's consent. Section 12 of the Civil Code says image and sound recordings concerning a person or their expressions of a personal nature "may be made or used only with their consent," and section 377 of the Criminal Code punishes unlawfully recording words spoken non-publicly and then sharing or using the recording to the serious harm of someone's rights. The GDPR, Act No. 18/2018 Coll. and the Labor Code limit what you may collect and keep, and since June 7, 2026 an employer may not ask a candidate about their current or previous pay. This is the position as of November 2026.

This page adds Slovakia to our country series alongside the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, for recruiters and hiring managers who interview candidates in Slovakia by video or phone, including from the US. Statutes are quoted from Slov-Lex, the Ministry of Justice's legislation portal, in the versions in force in November 2026; quotations are our translations from Slovak.

Slovakia's rules at a glance

Do you need the candidate's consent to record an interview in Slovakia?

Yes. Section 11 of the Civil Code (Act No. 40/1964 Coll., as in force from July 31, 2026) protects a person's personality, including "privacy, their name and expressions of a personal nature." Section 12(1) says: "Documents of a personal nature, portraits, pictures and image and sound recordings concerning a natural person or their expressions of a personal nature may be made or used only with their consent." The exceptions do not fit an interview: section 12(2) covers official purposes under a law, and section 12(3) covers reasonable use for scientific and artistic purposes and for press, film, radio and television reporting.

A candidate whose rights are infringed can ask a court under section 13 to stop the interference, remove its consequences and grant "adequate satisfaction," or money for non-pecuniary harm where their dignity or standing was considerably diminished. Note two things. The Civil Code consent is separate from your GDPR lawful basis: you may rely on legitimate interests for the processing and still need the candidate's agreement to record. And section 12, unlike the Czech Civil Code, says nothing about withdrawing consent; GDPR consent, though, must be as easy to withdraw as to give (Article 7(3)), so be ready to stop and delete when asked.

Is recording a call a crime in Slovakia?

It can be. Section 377 of the Criminal Code (Act No. 300/2005 Coll., as in force from August 18, 2026) punishes whoever "breaches the confidentiality of words spoken non-publicly or another expression of a personal nature by unlawfully capturing it with a recording device and making the recording so made accessible to a third person or using it in another way, and thereby causes serious harm to another's rights," with up to two years in prison, and longer terms for organized groups, considerable damage or gain, and public officials.

Unlike the interception offenses on our Czech and Polish pages, section 377 does not depend on the recorder being outside the conversation. It needs three things together: an unlawful recording, sharing or other use, and serious harm. Recording openly with the candidate's agreement and using the file only as agreed is far from it; recording covertly and sending the file to a client is the scenario to avoid.

Two related rules matter too. Section 374 punishes unlawfully disclosing personal data "obtained in connection with the performance of their profession, employment or function," in breach of a legal duty, with up to one year. Section 109(5) of the Electronic Communications Act (Act No. 452/2021 Coll.) prohibits "recording, listening in, storing messages or other kinds of interception or monitoring of messages and associated data by persons other than users or without the consent of the users concerned," unless a law provides otherwise. Neither stops you from recording with agreement; both are reasons not to record secretly or let someone outside the call listen in.

What may you ask a candidate, and what does that mean for a recording?

A recording captures everything said, including what you should not have asked. Four rules set the limits:

• Labor Code, section 41(5) and (6): from a first-time job seeker, an employer may require "only information related to the work they are to perform," and from anyone it may not require information about pregnancy, family circumstances, political, trade union or religious affiliation, or a clean record unless a law or the nature of the work requires it (Act No. 311/2001 Coll., as in force from September 1, 2026).
• Employment Services Act, section 62(3): when selecting, the employer may not require information on nationality, racial or ethnic origin, political views, union membership, religion or sexual orientation, anything "contrary to good morals," or personal data its legal duties do not need, and it "is obliged, at the citizen's request, to prove the necessity of the personal data requested" (Act No. 5/2004 Coll.).
• Pay history, since June 7, 2026: under section 4(4) of Act No. 76/2026 Coll. on equal pay, the employer "may not require from a natural person applying to it for employment information about their pay with their current employer or previous employers." Section 4(2) and (3) also entitle the candidate to information on the starting pay or its range, given before the interview or before the contract; a job ad that states it is enough.
• Equal treatment: the Anti-discrimination Act (Act No. 365/2004 Coll.) covers "the conditions and manner of carrying out the selection" (section 6(2)(a)), and section 41(9) of the Labor Code gives "adequate monetary compensation" for breaches of section 41(5), (6) or (8) when an employment relationship is established.

Keep the interview to the job, leave anything outside these limits out of the notes and scorecard, and, because section 62(3) puts the burden on you, have a short written answer ready if a candidate asks why a recording is needed rather than notes.

How do the GDPR and Act No. 18/2018 Coll. fit together?

For a private employer or agency the GDPR applies directly; section 3(2) of Act No. 18/2018 Coll. (as in force from August 18, 2026) disapplies the Act's own general rules for that processing. What remains is national machinery: section 79 requires controllers and processors to keep personal data confidential and to bind everyone who handles it, such as interviewers, to confidentiality that outlasts their employment, and the Act sets up the Office and its proceedings. We found no section aimed at job applicants. You still need an Article 6 basis (see legitimate interest in recruitment), the Article 13 notice, minimization, a retention limit and answers to access and erasure requests within one month.

What does the Office for Personal Data Protection say?

The Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic (Úrad na ochranu osobných údajov Slovenskej republiky) supervises data protection. In November 2026 its methodologies page said "Dokumenty aktualizujeme" ("we are updating the documents"), and we found no guidance from it on recording interviews. Its annual reports describe three cases that come close:

• State one legal basis (report for 2020, section 7.3.6). The Office found that a security company using cameras as a Labor Code "control mechanism" had not shown, for example by a proportionality test, that its interests outweighed its employees' rights, and that describing the basis once as legitimate interest and once as section 13(4) was misleading and not transparent.
• Keep what you announce (report for 2024, section 9.1.5). A health insurer told people it kept recorded calls for five years but did not ensure its processors kept them that long; the Office found breaches of Article 5(1)(a) and (f) GDPR.
• Assess profiling (report for 2025, section 9.1.6). The Office found that the central body coordinating public employment services had breached Article 35 GDPR by processing job seekers' personality characteristics, "which are a form of profiling," without an impact assessment.

A candidate can file a request to start proceedings. Under section 100 of the Act, the request must include proof that the candidate exercised their rights with the controller, or the reasons they did not, and the Office sets it aside if the event is more than three years old.

What if you record your own recruiters' calls?

Then section 13(4) of the Labor Code applies to your staff. An employer may not, "without serious reasons lying in the special nature of the employer's activities," intrude on employees' privacy by monitoring them, "recording telephone calls made with the employer's technical work equipment" or checking work email, without notifying them in advance. A "control mechanism" must be discussed with employee representatives, as to scope, method and duration, and explained to employees; without representatives, section 12(2) lets the employer act alone. The rule protects employees, not external applicants, but an interview recording also records your interviewer, and an internal candidate already works for you. A system that records every recruiter call needs a documented reason, written notice and, after the 2020 case, one consistently stated legal basis.

How long can you keep recordings and transcripts?

No Slovak statute fixes a period; we found none in the Labor Code or Act No. 18/2018 Coll., so the GDPR's storage limit in Article 5(1)(e) governs. Under section 11(2) of the Anti-discrimination Act, once a candidate puts facts before the court from which a breach of equal treatment can reasonably be inferred, the employer must prove it did not breach it, which can justify keeping job-related notes and scorecards for a defined period. The Office's three-year cut-off for complaints (section 100(5)(d)) is a reference point for notes, not a reason to keep audio that long. Keep audio briefly, notes longer with a documented reason, and state the period you and your vendors actually apply; our retention policy template gives the structure.

What if you interview a candidate in Slovakia 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 only where Article 3(2) applies, and section 3(4) of Act No. 18/2018 Coll. uses the same test. Treat the Civil Code's consent rule as applying wherever you sit; your own state's law governs your side of the call (see two-party consent states). A recording sent to a US vendor needs a Chapter V transfer basis: the Office's transfers page lists the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Decision 2023/1795) among adequacy decisions, for certified recipients only; otherwise use standard contractual clauses.

Can you use AI note takers or transcription?

Yes, on the same footing as a recording: tell the candidate before you start, name the tool, ask, and delete on schedule. Sign an Article 28 processor contract whose retention terms match your notice, and ask where the vendor stores audio and transcripts and whether it trains models on them. If a tool scores, ranks or profiles candidates, plan an impact assessment, respect Article 22 GDPR on solely automated decisions, and expect it to be high-risk 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 sends audio to a speech-to-text provider in short chunks without keeping it; the transcript is still personal data under the rules above.

A consent line for interviews in Slovakia

Skôr než začneme: rád/rada by som [nahrával/a náš rozhovor / nechal/a
náš rozhovor prepisovať softvérom], aby som presne zachytil/a vaše
odpovede. [Záznam / Prepis] použijeme len v tomto výberovom konaní,
sprístupníme ho len [klientovi / manažérovi, ktorý rozhoduje o prijatí]
a vymažeme ho [lehota] po skončení výberového konania. Súhlasíte s tým?
Môžete odmietnuť alebo ma kedykoľvek požiadať, aby som prestal/a; na
posúdenie vašej kandidatúry to nebude mať žiadny vplyv.

(Before we start: I'd like to [record our conversation / have our
conversation transcribed by software] so I capture your answers
accurately. We'll use the [recording / transcript] only in this
selection process, make it available only to [the client / the manager
making the hiring decision] and delete it [period] after the selection
process ends. Do you agree? You can say no or ask me to stop at any
time; it won't affect how your application is assessed.)

Put the same information, with the Article 13 details and the hiring employer's identity, in the invitation and privacy notice. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Slovakia

• Candidate told and asked before recording or transcription starts; the answer noted; handwritten notes as the alternative.
• Nothing covert; no one outside the call listening; recordings shared only as the candidate was told.
• Questions limited to the job: nothing on pregnancy, family, nationality or ethnic origin, politics, union membership, religion, sexual orientation, or current or past pay.
• One Article 6 basis, stated the same way everywhere; Article 13 notice in the invitation.
• Everyone with access bound to confidentiality (section 79 of Act No. 18/2018 Coll.).
• Retention set, applied by you and your vendors, and the same as in the notice.
• Recruiters told in writing before their own calls are recorded.
• US vendors certified under the Data Privacy Framework or on standard contractual clauses; an impact assessment for any scoring tool.