Stop your note taker from emailing everyone
How we make money: No link on this page earns us anything right now. We may join companies' affiliate programs, and our affiliate disclosure lists any we've joined. If a link on this page ever pays us, it will be marked "(paid link)" and this box will name the companies that pay us. We haven't tested these products hands-on. Settings and defaults come from each vendor's own help pages, checked 2026-10-26 and linked in Sources.
The recap email is often the part people notice. A meeting ends, and a summary of what was said lands in every attendee's inbox, sometimes including people outside your company, sometimes with a link anyone can open. Each tool has two separate controls: who gets sent the notes and who can open them. This page covers both. If your problem is the bot joining meetings in the first place, see note takers that don't auto-join your meetings.
Quick answer
- Fireflies: Fireflies says the recap email is set to "Everyone on the invite" by default (internal and external), and that the default privacy setting for meetings is "Teammates & anyone with link". Change both: recap to "Only me" or "Only me and participants from my Fireflies team", and privacy to a stricter level such as "Participants" or "Only Owner".
- Otter: set "Default audience for shared notes" to "Don't Share". Then check calendar events you set by hand, because Otter says those keep their own setting. Also check "Send live transcript and summary": Otter says when it's on, the Notetaker posts a link to the live transcript in the meeting chat and, right before the meeting ends, "a summary and action items".
- Fathom: set the post-meeting share option to "Nothing" or "Summary only".
- tl;dv: tl;dv's help article (dated April 3, 2025) says that "by default", it "automatically shares your recordings with meeting participants that belong to your organization". Change it under Preferences, "Auto-sharing via email to meeting invitees".
- Zoom AI Companion summaries: under "Automatically share summary with", pick "Only me (meeting host)". Zoom says this turns off automatic sharing "for newly created meetings going forward", so check meetings you already scheduled.
- Google Meet "Take notes for me": under "Send notes to", pick "Hosts and co-hosts only". Google says the admin default is "Invited guests in your organization".
Recap and sharing settings (as of 2026-10-26)
Each cell is what the vendor's own help page says. "Not stated" means we didn't find it on the pages we read. Setting names change; check the help page before you rely on a menu path. Rows are in alphabetical order, not ranked.
| Tool | Who gets sent the notes (per vendor) | Who can open them (per vendor) | Default (per vendor) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluedot | In My Settings, auto-share with all meeting participants or only internal participants (same email domain). After each meeting recorded in Google Chrome, a pop-up offers to share; "Not now" skips it, "Always share" turns auto-share on | Not checked | Not stated |
| Fathom | Post-meeting share: "Summary & recording", "Summary only" or "Nothing" ("attendees will not get a summary or recording of the meeting") | Team plans: "Make external meetings visible to your team by default" | Not stated |
| Fireflies | "Send email recap to": "Everyone on the invite" (internal and external), "Only me and participants from my Fireflies team" or "Only me". Recap emails "include a summary + a link to the full notes" | Per meeting or as a default: "Teammates & Anyone with the link", "Teammates & Participants", "Teammates", "Participants" or "Only Owner". Admins can set team-wide defaults | Recap: "By default, this is set to Everyone on the invite". Access: "Teammates & anyone with link" is marked "(Default)": "Anyone with the recap link can view it, and all teammates can access it in the #All Meetings tab even if they weren't in the meeting" |
| Google Meet "Take notes for me" | "Send notes to" (hosts and co-hosts only): "All invited guests, including those outside of my organization", "Invited guests in my organization" or "Hosts and co-hosts only". Recipients get an email with access to the notes doc | Access follows the notes doc's sharing. "Invited guests means all guests on the Calendar invite, not guests who actually attended." Admins can lock the setting | Admin console default: "Invited guests in your organization (default)" |
| Granola | Not stated (Granola says "No bot joins your meeting") | "Default link sharing setting": "Anyone with the link", "Only my company" or "Private". When you make it stricter, Granola asks whether to update your existing notes too. Enterprise has workspace-wide sharing settings | Not stated |
| Otter | "Default audience for shared notes": all event guests, same-domain guests, Workspace members, or "Don't Share". Per event: "Share with calendar guests", "Share with channels and people", "Share with link". Also check "Send live transcript and summary": Otter says when it's on, the Notetaker posts a link to the live transcript in the meeting chat and, right before the meeting ends, "a summary and action items" (default: not stated) | "Default permission level": Collaborator or Viewer, plus a toggle for "Allow Collaborators to share" | Not stated. Events you set by hand keep their own setting |
| tl;dv | Preferences, "Auto-sharing via email to meeting invitees". Invitees get an email with the recording and access in their tl;dv library | "Auto-publish to my domain's library" puts your recordings in the library of teammates with the same company email domain | Help article dated April 3, 2025: "By default, tl;dv automatically shares your recordings with meeting participants that belong to your organization." tl;dv says Pro users have "full control" of default sharing |
| Zoom AI Companion meeting summary | "Automatically share summary with": "Only me (meeting host)", host and co-hosts and alternative hosts, host and invitees in your organization, or "All meeting invitees including those outside of our organization". Only people originally invited get it, not people who joined from a forwarded link | Admins can "Restrict users from sharing summaries" with external users, or set summaries to be shared "only by email" | Not stated. Zoom says the summary "will be automatically sent after the meeting has ended" |
What we didn't check: Microsoft Teams Copilot recaps, Read.ai, Notta, and what each tool's free plan allows. Ask the vendor or test with a meeting of your own before you rely on a setting.
Before you change anything
- Two settings, not one. Who gets the email and who can open the link are separate in Fireflies, Otter and Granola. A private email list doesn't help if the link inside it opens for anyone, and a locked-down link doesn't stop a summary from being emailed. Taken together, with both defaults left on, everyone on the invite, including outside guests, gets an email with a summary and a link to the full notes, and Fireflies says anyone with the recap link can view it, per Fireflies' pages (checked 2026-10-26). Check your own settings.
- Check events you set by hand. Otter says manually set calendar events keep their own auto-share setting after you change the default. Look at your upcoming meetings after you switch. Zoom says its "Only me" choice applies to newly created meetings.
- Your admin may decide for you. Fireflies, Google and Zoom all describe admin-level defaults or locks. If an option is greyed out, ask your admin.
- Check the recap list before the meeting starts. Some note takers email the summary to every invitee, including anyone who left early, and the summary can include what was said after they left. How each tool picks recap recipients is in the table above and its own settings docs.
- "Invited" isn't "attended". Google says "Invited guests" means everyone on the calendar invite, not who showed up. Someone who skipped the meeting can still get the notes.
- Already sent? None of the help pages we read describe a way to pull back a recap email once it's sent. What you can usually change afterwards is access: Fireflies lets you change a single meeting's privacy setting, Otter says you can "stop the sharing of a conversation post-meeting", and tl;dv says "You can always revoke this access after it has been given."
- Sensitive meetings: HR conversations, performance reviews, medical or legal topics, and client calls are where an automatic recap does the most harm. Turn auto-share off before those, not after.
Privacy and consent
Recording laws: tell people first. Federal law and most states let you record a conversation you're part of. About 11 states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington, generally require everyone's consent, and a few states mix the rules. Oregon, for example, requires that everyone in an in-person conversation be told it's being recorded, while phone calls need one person's consent (RCFP guide, ORS 165.540). If people are in different states, the stricter law may apply. Rules outside the US differ too, and many employers, schools and clinics have their own policies. A meeting bot showing up in the participant list is a notice, not consent. The same goes for a "this call may be recorded" greeting: it may not tell people that an AI service is transcribing or summarizing the call, so name the AI note taker when you ask. This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer where you live.
A simple way to ask. Start recording first, so your announcement is captured on the recording (Washington law requires that). Then say:
"Quick heads-up: I'd like to record this and use an AI note taker to transcribe it, so I don't miss anything. The recording and notes are stored with [tool name]. Is everyone OK with that?"
Wait for a clear yes from each person. If anyone says no, stop and delete what you captured. For meetings with outside guests, also put a line in the invite: "This meeting may be recorded and transcribed by an AI note taker. Let me know beforehand if you'd prefer it isn't."
- Tell people where the notes go. If the summary will be emailed to everyone on the invite, say so when you ask.
What we did and didn't do
We read the help pages below on 2026-10-26. We didn't sign in to any of these tools or change any setting, so we can't confirm the menus look exactly like this on your account. The reader concerns above come from public threads we read in October 2026; we don't quote, link or name anyone.
Sources (checked 2026-10-26)
- Fireflies guide, How to configure your meeting recap email settings: https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/5256165363-how-to-configure-your-meeting-recap-email-settings
- Fireflies guide, Control Who Can View Your Fireflies Meeting Recaps via Privacy Settings: https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/5319481450-how-to-configure-privacy-settings-for-your-meeting-recaps
- Otter help, Turn off auto-share for conversations & meetings (updated July 2, 2025): https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/14952683922711-Turn-off-auto-share-for-conversations-meetings
- Otter help, Manage your Otter Notetaker settings (updated July 22, 2026): https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/13675989227543-Manage-your-Otter-Notetaker-settings
- Fathom help, Navigating the Settings Page (edited June 4, 2026): https://help.fathom.video/en/articles/3239617
- tl;dv help, How to auto-share recordings with meeting invitees (April 3, 2025): https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490523-how-to-auto-share-recordings-with-meeting-invitees
- tl;dv help, Who will see my recordings? (April 3, 2025): https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8460883-who-will-see-my-recordings
- Bluedot help, How to Set Up Auto-Sharing (August 25, 2026): https://help.bluedothq.com/en/articles/11403151-how-to-set-up-auto-sharing
- Granola help, Sharing controls: https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls
- Granola, Security, privacy and data FAQs: https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs
- Granola pricing (workspace-wide sharing settings on Enterprise): https://www.granola.ai/pricing
- Zoom support, Enabling or disabling meeting summary with AI: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0057960
- Google Meet help, "Take notes for me" in Google Meet: https://support.google.com/meet/answer/14754931?hl=en
- Google Workspace admin help, Let Google Meet AI take notes for my users: https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/meet/let-google-meet-ai-take-notes-for-my-users
- RCFP recording guide: https://www.rcfp.org/introduction-to-reporters-recording-guide/
- Oregon ORS 165.540: https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_165.540
Changes
- 2026-10-26: page first written. Recipient, access and default claims checked on the vendor help pages in Sources.
- 2026-10-26: Review fixes. tl;dv default dated, Zoom "Only me" scoped to new meetings, Otter's in-meeting chat message added, Fireflies combined-defaults sentence, recall line scoped.
- 2026-10-27: added a check-the-recap-list tip.