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In a state that has "all party consent" laws when it comes to recording conversations, does taking a screenshot during a video conference (e.g. Zoom, Google Meet, etc.) require consent from everyone? (Do recording laws even apply here? Privacy laws?) Assume the screenshot doesn't have any written text, nor does it involve trade secrets, etc.

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  • is there an reasonable expectation of privacy?
    – Jasen
    Commented Feb 5 at 4:24
  • Often the video conferencing service announces to all that it is being recorded.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Feb 5 at 16:10
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    @ohwilleke: At least in my experience with Microsoft Teams, this only happens when using Teams' own recording feature. However, the OP asks about taking a screenshot which does not require use of the video conferencing program's builtin facilities. Heck, I can take a photograph of my computer screen with my analog camera.
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Commented Feb 5 at 22:05

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I feel like we should have duplicates here, because I am repeating myself, but I guess it's not easy making actual duplicates, when it's just Germany where it's all the same and many other countries handle it differently for different questions.

I'll call it a "photo", because it doesn't really matter how you achieved getting a picture of others. Computer, screenshot, cellphone camera, CCTV, it's all the same. A picture is a picture.

One way it would be allowed to use that screenshot in anything would be if you act on behalf of the company and the company paid the person explicitely to be photographed. For example if the person is a model, working for the company on the call.

Another way would be if your coworkers as a group of people just happen to be there in the shot, while something of public interest happens in the focus of the picture.

But if it is simply your coworkers on a video software, with no special significance to the public, the only way legally publishing that photo is with their consent.

There are many specific laws at play here when you consider severe cases of unwanted pictures taken (person drunk, naked, on the toilet, underage etc) but for lighter cases (person just did not want to be in the picture) it is included in the general laws about personal rights. You can read all about it for example here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recht_am_eigenen_Bild_(Deutschland)

Since you asked for a screenshot without mentioning what it was for, if you actually never show that screenshot to anybody, it is fine. For example, you take a screenshot to remember who was there to write the minutes of the meeting after lunchbreak and then delete it when you got all the names right, without anybody else ever seeing it, that would be fine.

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  • I should have specified I was referring to United States laws. I know German laws are more privacy-focused than the US.
    – cine
    Commented Feb 4 at 20:36
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    The question said nothing about publishing.
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Feb 4 at 21:53
  • @MichaelHall but Publishing or not is all that german law cares for in most cases (only for very intimate pictures possession is looked at as an infringement of the right)
    – Trish
    Commented Feb 5 at 0:17
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    But German publishing laws have absolutely nothing to do with taking a picture in the US. It is irrelevant.
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Feb 5 at 2:45
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    Then do so, I literally cannot do any more then quote a dictionary to you. If you do not believe the dictionary, I cannot help.
    – nvoigt
    Commented Feb 5 at 21:55

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