Uruguay interview recording laws: documented consent under Law 18,331, the Penal Code and the URCDP

Recording a job interview with a candidate in Uruguay requires the candidate's consent in practice. Law 18,331 on personal data makes processing lawful when the person has given "free, prior, express and informed" consent, "which must be documented," and its exception for data deriving from a contractual relationship does not clearly cover a candidate who has no contract yet. The Penal Code punishes intercepting a telephone communication "by means of artifices" and publishing, without just cause, a call addressed to you that should stay secret. Since 2018 the law also reaches foreign companies in some cases. The regulator is the Personal Data Regulatory and Control Unit (URCDP). This is the position as of November 2026.

This page adds Uruguay to our country series alongside Argentina, Brazil and Chile. It is for US recruiters, nearshore staffing teams and hiring managers who interview candidates located in Uruguay by video or phone. Quotations from Uruguayan sources are our translations from Spanish.

Uruguay's rules at a glance

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

Article 28 of the Constitution says: "The papers of private persons and their correspondence, by letter, telegraph or of any other kind, are inviolable, and they may never be searched, examined or intercepted except in accordance with laws established for reasons of general interest."

The Penal Code protects that secrecy in a chapter on offenses against the inviolability of secrets. Article 297 punishes anyone who, "making use of artifices, intercepts a telegraphic or telephone communication, prevents it or interrupts it," with a fine of 20 to 400 readjustable units (UR). Article 297-TER, added by Law 20,327 of August 2024, punishes with six to 24 months in prison anyone who "without authorization and without just cause" intercepts computer data "in non-public transmissions." Both describe someone tapping into a communication between others; we found no official text applying them to a participant's own record of a call.

The rule to watch is about disclosure. Article 298 makes it an offense, where it causes harm, for anyone who "without just cause, publishes the content of a correspondence, by letter, telegraph or telephone, that was addressed to them and that, by its own nature, should remain secret," with a fine of 20 to 200 UR. An interview is that kind of conversation. Keep recordings inside the hiring process, and share them only as the data protection rules below allow.

What does Law 18,331 require?

A recording or transcript is personal data, "information of any kind referring to" identified or identifiable people, under Law 18,331 on personal data protection and habeas data. The rules that matter for an interview:

• Consent (Article 9). Processing is lawful "when the data subject has given free, prior, express and informed consent, which must be documented." If consent is given together with other statements, it must appear "expressly and prominently." The exception for data that "derive from a contractual, scientific or professional relationship of the data subject, and are necessary for its development or fulfillment" fits an employee better than a candidate.
• Information first (Article 13). Tell the candidate "expressly, precisely and unequivocally" the purpose and the recipients, that the database exists and who holds it and where, whether answers are mandatory or optional, the consequences of answering or refusing, their rights, whether there are international transfers, and, for automated processing, "the evaluation criteria, the processes applied and the technological solution or program used."
• Fair collection and purpose (Articles 7 and 8). Data may not be collected "by unfair, fraudulent, abusive" means, may not be used for incompatible purposes, and "must be deleted when they are no longer necessary or relevant."
• Sensitive data (Article 18). "No person can be obliged to provide sensitive data," which may be processed only with the person's "express and written consent."
• Accountability (Article 12). Since Law 19,670, controllers must apply "privacy by design, privacy by default, data protection impact assessment" and other measures, and be able to show they did.
• Registration (Article 6). Forming a database is lawful "when they are duly registered," so check whether your candidate database must be registered with the URCDP.

Does Uruguay's law apply to a US company?

It can. Article 37 of Law 19,670 applies Law 18,331 to organizations established in Uruguay and, for those that are not, "if the processing activities are related to the offering of goods or services directed at inhabitants of the Republic or to the analysis of their behavior," if international law or a contract provides for it, or "if means located in the country are used in the processing." The URCDP's guide for foreign entities (December 2021) reads "means" broadly, citing its Opinion 26/013 and the legal report behind it: technical, human, physical, logical or other means, "provided they establish a point of connection with national territory." It lists the duties of a foreign organization that is covered: follow the law's principles, honor data subjects' rights, apply privacy by design, carry out impact assessments where required, register its databases with the URCDP, appoint a data protection officer where required, publish a privacy policy and report security breaches. Whether your interviews trigger Article 37 depends on the facts; a staffing firm that recruits in Uruguay for clients should assume it may.

Can candidates get the recording, and how fast must you answer?

Yes. Article 14 gives the data subject, after proving identity, the right to obtain "all the information" about them in a database, free of charge at six-month intervals. It "must be provided within five business days" of the request, clearly, covering the whole record, by writing, electronic, telephone, image or other suitable means, and without revealing third parties' data. Article 15 sets the same five-business-day limit for correction, update, inclusion or deletion. Miss the deadline and the candidate can bring a habeas data action in court. Our candidate data access requests guide has a workflow.

How long can you keep interview recordings?

No fixed period applies to recruiting. Article 8 says data "must be deleted when they are no longer necessary or relevant to the purposes for which they were collected." Keep recordings for a short, documented period after the hiring decision, then delete them, and ask separately before keeping a candidate in a talent pool. Our retention policy template gives the structure.

Can you send the recording to a client or a US-hosted tool?

Sharing with a client is a "communication of data." Article 17 allows it only for purposes directly related to the legitimate interest of both sides and "with the prior consent of the data subject, who must be informed of the purpose of the communication" and of the recipient, unless one of the law's exceptions applies. The client then has the same legal duties as you, and you remain jointly liable for its compliance. Name the client in your consent request; see can recruiters share interview recordings with clients.

For tools abroad, Article 23 prohibits transfers to countries that do not provide adequate protection, with exceptions that include the person's unequivocal consent to the transfer and transfers necessary to perform a contract or "pre-contractual measures taken at the request of the data subject." The URCDP can also authorize transfers backed by sufficient guarantees: in Resolution 12/026 of June 18, 2026 it authorized one based on the Ibero-American Data Protection Network's model clauses, which it had recommended in Resolution 50/022, and reminded the company of the information requirements for international transfers set in Resolution 70/023 (resolution). Name the destination country in your notice. If you interview from the US, your own state's law also governs your side of the call; see two-party consent states.

Can you use AI note takers for interviews in Uruguay?

Yes, with documented consent that names the tool, a contract with the vendor as your processor, and a transfer route for any vendor abroad. If the tool scores candidates, Article 16 matters: people have the right not to be subject to a decision with legal effects that significantly affects them when it is based on automated processing that evaluates aspects of their personality, "such as their work performance," and they can ask for the evaluation criteria and the program used. Ask any vendor whether it keeps audio and whether it trains models on your interviews; training is a new purpose under Article 8. Interview Signal, for example, captures audio from 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 under Law 18,331.

A consent line for interviews in Uruguay

"Antes de empezar: en [Empresa], con domicilio en [dirección],
quisiéramos grabar y transcribir esta entrevista para registrar con
exactitud sus respuestas y evaluar su postulación. La usaremos solo para
este proceso de selección [y la compartiremos con (cliente)]; la
herramienta procesa los datos en [país]. La eliminaremos [plazo] después
de la decisión. Puede pedir acceso, rectificación o supresión
escribiendo a [correo]. ¿Nos da su consentimiento para grabar? Puede
negarse o pedirme que pare en cualquier momento; no afectará su
postulación."

("Before we start: [Company], of [address], would like to record and
transcribe this interview to capture your answers accurately and
assess your application. We'll use it only for this selection process
[and share it with (client)]; the tool processes the data in
[country]. We'll delete it [period] after the decision. You can ask
for access, correction or deletion by writing to [email]. Do you
consent to the recording? You can refuse or ask me to stop at any
time; it won't affect your application.")

Send the same text in the invitation and keep the candidate's written reply, which documents consent as Article 9 requires; the spoken yes on the recording is extra proof. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Uruguay

• Consent asked before recording starts and documented; Article 13 information given first.
• Client sharing named and consented to under Article 17.
• Transfer route for any vendor abroad: unequivocal consent, a pre-contractual necessity, or URCDP-approved guarantees.
• Article 37 coverage checked for a foreign company; databases registered with the URCDP where required.
• Requests answered within five business days; a retention period set and followed.
• No decision based only on an automated score; evaluation criteria available on request.
• Recordings never published or passed outside the hiring process (Penal Code, Article 298).

Also hiring in Latin America? See Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica and Colombia.