Recording and consent
Recording a session in Poland.
A participant in a Polish conversation may record it, because article 267 is aimed at obtaining information a person was not entitled to receive. That is Kodeks karny article 267, and the sentence a practitioner says out loud before recording is the same one in every country on this site.
This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Laws change. If the answer matters to your business, check with a lawyer in your own country.
01The sentence
Say this, out loud, before anything else is said.
I am going to record this session so I can write you a proper report afterwards. Is that all right with you?
It is the same sentence everywhere, because a specific disclosure followed by a direct question is what recording guidance favours over a vague notice, and because everybody in the session agreeing is safe in every jurisdiction on this site. What changes by place is who has to answer it.
02Who has to agree
In Poland the rule is one party.
The statute Kodeks karny article 267
Article 267 of the Polish criminal code punishes a person who obtains information not intended for them, including by using a recording device. A practitioner in a session is the intended recipient of what the client says to them, so the offence does not reach the recording. Polish civil law then supplies a separate route: the Civil Code protects personal interests including a person's voice and image, and a Polish court can order a recording destroyed and compensation paid on that basis alone.
Say what the recording is for, who you are, and how long it is kept, at the start of the session. That is the Article 13 notice and it is the thing the Polish authority most often finds missing.
03A client under 18
What changes when the person in the session is a child.
Poland sets the digital age of consent at 16. For a client below that, the consent has to be given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility, and Polish practice is to take it in writing at enrolment. A Polish practice working with school age students should also expect the school to ask for a copy of what the parent agreed to.
04The data law
The recording is personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Ustawa o ochronie danych osobowych.
Poland's supervisory authority, the Urząd Ochrony Danych Osobowych, publishes enforcement decisions in volume and has been active against small organisations rather than only large ones, which makes Poland unusual. Its recurring finding is a failure to give the information notice required by Article 13 at the moment data is collected, which for a recording means at the start of the session.
05What Slide Practice does
The audio goes as soon as the report is written.
At upload the practitioner confirms on screen that everyone in the session agreed. That confirmation is stored, and the footer of the report prints the date it was given.
Session audio is deleted as soon as the write-up is made. The The text of what was said, written out from the recording. stays with the The written page a client receives after a session: what was covered, what went well, what they agreed to do, and what is next., on the client's own page, and both are kept until the account is closed. Closing an account starts a 30 day window, at the end of which everything is deleted rather than archived.
Nothing is drafted from a recording until the practitioner has confirmed that everyone agreed, and nothing reaches a client until a person has read it. The whole of what is kept, and for how long, is on the security page and in the privacy policy.
06Where this came from
Two primary sources, and neither of them is us.
- Kodeks karny, Internetowy System Aktów Prawnych
- Obowiązek informacyjny, Urząd Ochrony Danych Osobowych
This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Laws change. If the answer matters to your business, check with a lawyer in your own country.
Nearby
- Recording a session in Japan
- Recording a session in Hong Kong
- Every jurisdiction, and how permission works in the product
- What the report itself looks like, practice by practice
Bring one recording you already have permission for, and read what comes back. No account and no card.