Using Meeting Transcription and Summarization Tools? Be Sure to Choose Approved Software 

AI-powered transcription and summarization tools are increasingly used to capture meeting notes and recordings. While convenient, they can introduce significant risks related to data privacy, compliance, and institutional liability. This guidance outlines the university’s concerns with using unapproved tools (e.g., Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai) and the advantages of using approved tools such as Microsoft Teams Premium and Zoom AI Companion. 
 
Key Concerns with Unapproved Tools

1. Legal and Compliance Risks
   • Any recorded or transcribed content may be subject to public records requests. If not properly managed or deleted, this data becomes discoverable.
   • Transcriptions may include regulated data (such as student or patient information) that must be handled according to strict compliance standards.
2. Lack of Central Management
   • No automatic deletion policies.
   • No institutional control over data retention.
   • Users are responsible for manually deleting content—something that rarely happens.
3. Privacy and Ethical Concerns
   • Tools may not be set up to ask meeting attendees for permission to record.
   • Recordings may be used to train AI models.

Advantages of Using University-Approved Tools—Microsoft Teams Premium & Zoom AI Companion

1. They’ve been vetted by the university for compliance and security.
2. They're centrally managed, with features like:
   1. Automatic deletion of recordings.
   2. Configurable data retention policies.
   3. Secure handling of sensitive information.

Recommended Actions

1. View the AI tools page and avoid using unapproved transcription tools.
2. Use Microsoft Teams Premium or Zoom AI Companion for transcription and meeting recordings.
3. Delete any recordings or transcriptions that are no longer needed, especially if they contain sensitive data.
4. Reach out to aisupport@utah.edu if you need transcription functionality not currently supported by approved tools.