Who sees your meeting notes?
Explainer · 2026-10-06
It depends less on the tool than on its defaults. According to their own help pages, Read.ai and Fireflies email the recap to everyone on the invite — Fireflies including guests outside your company — and a Fireflies recap link opens for anyone who has it. tl;dv and Google Meet send to invitees in your organisation. Granola, Notion and Zoom keep notes to you or the host until you share, though Granola's links opened for anyone with the link by default, as reported in April 2026. Audiee.ai sends nothing to anyone unless you share it.
A meeting recap is the meeting, in writing. When it lands in the inbox of everyone on the invite — including the client's legal team and the colleague who forwarded the invite — it travels much further than the call did. Three defaults decide how far: who gets the recap, who can open a shared link, and whether the note-taker joins meetings on its own. Every row below comes from the vendor's own help page unless marked otherwise; "not stated" means we could not find the default written down.
| Note-taker | After the meeting, the recap goes to | A shared link opens for | Joins meetings by itself | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read.ai | Everyone invited, by email — Read calls it the default and recommended setting | People with access; viewers without an account must sign up | Yes — all your meetings | Read.ai help |
| Fireflies | Everyone on the invite, internal and external, by email | Teammates and anyone with the link | Yes — every calendar meeting with a web-conference link | Fireflies guide |
| Otter | Your choice of all guests, same-domain guests, workspace or nobody; the help center doesn't name the starting setting | Restricted to the people it's shared with | Joins calendar meetings once a calendar is connected; the workspace default is meetings with a video link | Otter help |
| tl;dv | Invitees in your own organisation, by email | Not stated (public or people-with-access) | Not stated; tl;dv recommends auto-recording all meetings | tl;dv help |
| Fathom | Attendees only if auto-share is on; the quick-start guide tells you to turn it on | Not stated | Not stated; the guide recommends auto-recording all meetings | Fathom help |
| Google Meet “Take notes for me” | Invited guests in your organisation, by email | Only the people it's shared with | No bot; off for users, though admins can switch it on for some meetings | Google Workspace blog |
| Microsoft Teams recap | Invited people in your organisation, inside Teams — not emailed | Your organisation; others must request access | No bot; exists only when someone records or transcribes | Microsoft support |
| Zoom AI Companion | The host (Zoom doesn't mark a default; university IT guides record “Only me”) | Signed-in Zoom users | No bot; the host or co-host starts it | Zoom support |
| Granola | Only you — never shared automatically | Anyone with the link, per the in-app text The Verge reported on 2 April 2026; Granola's docs don't state it | No bot, never auto-joins | Granola docs, The Verge |
| Notion AI Meeting Notes | Only you; auto-share to internal participants is opt-in | Private unless you publish the page | No bot; you start it | Notion help |
| Audiee.ai | Only you; nothing is emailed to anyone | One read-only link per recipient you name; optional email code, expiry, revocable | No bot; offers to record when it sees a call, you start it | Sharing guide |
Checked 6 October 2026. Defaults change; if one of these is out of date, tell us at hello@audiee.ai and we will correct it.
Why the defaults matter more than the policy page
- Recaps go outside the company. Fireflies' own guide warns that a forwarded recap email opens the meeting to whoever clicks it.
- Viewing becomes signing up. Otter and Read.ai ask recipients without an account to create one to view a shared note — which is also how the note-taker reaches the next calendar.
- Auto-join spreads it. A note-taker that joins every meeting on a calendar records meetings its user did not organise, and sends recaps from them. This is the behaviour that makes IT departments block note-taker bots; we wrote up the questions they ask in When IT blocks the meeting bots.
- Changing a default isn't retroactive. Granola's link setting applies to notes created after you change it; check the old ones by hand.
How to turn each one down
| Note-taker | Where |
|---|---|
| Read.ai | Account Settings → Meeting Recording → Auto-Join Preferences; Account Settings → Reporting → untick “Send to participants with access”. |
| Fireflies | Settings → Meeting Settings → “Auto-join calendar meetings” off; Recording & Privacy → Meeting recap email → “Only me”, and Meeting privacy → a narrower option. |
| Otter | Integrations → Meetings → auto-join “Meetings I manually select”; Account Settings → Meetings → Default audience for shared notes → “Don't share”. |
| tl;dv | Preferences → Automations: turn off “Auto-record calendar events”; set “Auto-send email with meeting notes” to “Only with me”. |
| Fathom | Settings: auto-record “No Meetings”, post-meeting share “Nothing”. |
| Google Meet | Calendar event → Video call options → Meeting records → untick “Take notes with Gemini”; or set who receives notes to hosts and co-hosts only. |
| Teams | Meeting options → Recording & transcription → who has access → organizers and co-organizers, before the meeting starts. |
| Zoom | Web portal → Settings → Zoom AI → Meeting: “Automatically share summary with” → only the host. |
| Granola | Settings → Preferences → Data & sharing → Default link sharing → “Only my company” or “Private” (applies to notes created after the change). |
| Notion | Settings → Notion AI → “Auto-share with internal calendar event participants” off. |
What Audiee.ai does
Nothing leaves your Mac as a shared note unless you share it. Notes are Markdown files on the Mac; nobody is emailed after a meeting. When you do share, you name each recipient, each gets their own read-only page, and you can require a one-time email code, set an expiry of 7, 30 or 90 days, and revoke it. Audiee.ai never joins a call — it offers to record when it sees one, and you press start, which is also why telling the other people is your job (the rules by country).
Which AI note-takers email the summary to everyone in the meeting by default?
As of October 2026, Read.ai (everyone invited) and Fireflies (everyone on the invite, including external guests) do, according to their own help pages. tl;dv and Google Meet's Gemini notes send to invitees in your organisation. Otter lets you choose and its help center doesn't name the starting setting.
Is a Granola link public?
The Verge reported on 2 April 2026 that Granola's settings read "By default, your notes are viewable to anyone with the link." Granola's documentation lists Anyone with the link, Only my company and Private without naming the default, and a change applies only to notes created afterwards. Check Settings → Data & sharing.
Does Audiee.ai send notes to attendees?
No. Notes stay on your Mac. You can share a recap with a person by email; they get their own read-only link, which can require an email code, expire and be revoked.