The Zoom hack that says, ‘Don’t record me’

Venture capitalist Jeremy Levine changed his Zoom name to 'I do not consent to transcribing or recording' to protest the rise of AI transcription apps, which are becoming ubiquitous in meetings and even first dates. The Wall Street Journal reports that the trend is raising concerns about social norms, legal risks, and the overwhelming volume of recorded conversations that may never be reviewed.

VC Jeremy Levine has a wry solution to something that routinely annoys him, according to a new Wall Street Journal article https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/ai-recording-apps-wearables-granola-39727559 on the rise of AI transcription apps. On Zoom, he is no longer “Jeremy Levine” but instead “Jeremy Levine I do not consent to transcribing or recording.” It may sound petty or brilliant, depending on your point of view, but what’s clear is that always-on recording is becoming ubiquitous, thanks to a growing crop of AI note-taking apps and devices, many https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/29/pocket-raises-11m-in-bet-on-rising-demand-for-ai-note-taking-devices/ of which https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/16/plaud-says-its-software-business-topped-100m-in-arr-after-shipping-over-2m-ai-notetakers/ we’ve covered https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/26/speakons-dictation-device-is-a-good-idea-marred-by-platform-limitations/ here at TechCrunch we’ve even ranked https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/02/the-best-ai-powered-dictation-apps-of-2025/ some . VC Eric Bahn tells the outlet he now automatically assumes his meetings with founders will be recorded, even before he sees a phone slide across a conference table. One founder tells the WSJ she records most of her first dates with the Granola app, then feeds the transcript to Claude afterward to see if she could be more “engaging or empathetic,” while also assessing who did most of the talking. Levine calls the whole trend “socially unacceptable behavior” that can completely kill spontaneous conversations. Others in the piece note it’s a legal minefield. But there’s another wrinkle: if every meeting, watercooler conversation, and romantic outing gets transcribed and summarized, who’s actually reading any of it? At what point does this audio landfill of every conversation stop being useful and just become another recording no one has time to play back?