Is Oregon a One- or Two-Party Consent State?

Oregon is a one-party consent state for phone calls and an all-party consent state for in-person and video conversations. That split is unusual. Most states pick one standard and apply it across the board, so knowing which rule governs which situation is the whole question in Oregon. The controlling statute is ORS 165.540.¹

Phone Calls: One-Party Consent

If you are on the call, you can record it. You don’t have to tell the other person, and you don’t need their permission. Your own consent as a participant is enough. This covers telecommunications and electronic communications where the parties cannot see each other.¹

What you cannot do is record a call you’re not part of. Intercepting a conversation between other people is illegal in Oregon regardless of whether one of them would have consented. The one-party rule protects participants, not eavesdroppers.¹

In-Person and Video: All-Party Consent

The rule flips when people can see each other. For a face-to-face conversation, Oregon requires that every participant be specifically informed the conversation is being recorded before recording starts. Secretly recording a private in-person discussion is illegal even if you are part of it.¹

Since 2023, the same all-party rule applies to video conferencing. Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, and similar platforms are treated like in-person conversations. Everyone on the call has to be told before you hit record.²

When You Don’t Need Everyone’s Consent

Oregon carves out several situations where the all-party notification requirement does not apply. Each has real limits.

Public and Semipublic Gatherings

You can record at public and semipublic events, including government meetings, political gatherings, sporting events, lectures, and public performances. But the device must be unconcealed. A camera or recorder you’re openly holding is fine; something hidden in a bag is not, even at a public rally.¹

Felonies That Endanger Human Life

You can record a conversation during a felony that endangers human life without informing anyone. This is narrow. It does not cover misdemeanors, and it does not cover felonies that don’t involve a threat to someone’s life.¹

Video Calls Recorded for Evidence

If you are a participant in a video conference (or at least one participant consents), you can record without notifying everyone when you reasonably believe the recording may be used as evidence in a future court or administrative proceeding. This exception is specific to video conferencing. It does not authorize covert recording of an in-person conversation, even one you’d like to preserve as evidence.¹

Inside Your Own Home

Telecommunications subscribers and their family members are exempt from the recording prohibitions when recording inside their own homes. This is what covers home security cameras that pick up audio. If a camera in your living room captures visitors’ conversations, ORS 165.540 does not make you criminally liable.¹

The exception is tied to the home itself. It does not follow you to your car, your workplace, or a rental you don’t live in.

Recording Police Officers

Oregon has a specific statutory right to record law enforcement officers, but four conditions all have to be met:

The officer is performing official duties.
You record openly and in plain view, where participants can see you doing it.
The conversation is audible to you through normal, unaided hearing. Long-range microphones don’t qualify.
You are somewhere you’re legally allowed to be.

Even with all four met, this right does not allow you to trespass or interfere with an officer. Recording a traffic stop from a public sidewalk is protected. Walking into a crime scene to get a better angle is not.¹

Two Situations That Trip People Up

Dashcams

The home exception does not cover vehicles. A dashcam that records audio of you and your passengers is subject to the same all-party consent rule as any other in-person recording, so passengers need to be told the audio is being captured. Video-only dashcams don’t raise the issue, because ORS 165.540 targets the contents of conversations, not silent footage. Police officers have their own statutory exception for vehicle-mounted and body-worn cameras, but that is limited to on-duty officers and doesn’t extend to private drivers.¹

Workplace Conversations

p>ORS 165.540 applies at work the same way it applies everywhere else. In-person conversations with coworkers, supervisors, or clients require all-party notification. Employers also commonly adopt their own no-recording policies. Oregon’s state government, for example, prohibits employees from creating audio, visual, or transcription records of workplace conversations without the knowledge of all parties, with limited supervisor-approved exceptions.³

What Happens if You Record Illegally

A violation of ORS 165.540 is a Class A misdemeanor. So is distributing an illegally obtained recording when you know how it was made.¹⁴ Under ORS 165.543, illegally obtained recordings are also inadmissible in Oregon court proceedings, so even a recording that captures something incriminating can’t be used against the person recorded when the recording itself was illegal.

Civil liability runs on a separate track. A person whose conversation was recorded without consent can sue under ORS 30.831 for invasion of personal privacy and recover compensatory damages and reasonable attorney fees. When intimate images are involved, ORS 30.833 adds statutory damages of $5,000 per plaintiff on top of actual and punitive damages, with attorney fees for the prevailing plaintiff.⁵ The statute of limitations for a civil privacy claim is generally two years from the date of the recording or from when you discovered it.⁶

Interstate Calls Change the Analysis

Oregon’s one-party rule for phone calls works cleanly when both parties are in Oregon. It gets complicated when you call someone in a state that requires all-party consent, such as California or Washington. Courts have reached different conclusions about which state’s law controls, and there is no single federal rule that resolves the conflict.⁷

Federal law sets a floor. The federal Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511) uses one-party consent, but states are free to demand more, and several do. A federal wiretap violation carries penalties of up to five years in prison.⁸ For any interstate call, the safer approach is to follow the stricter state’s rule and ask for consent before recording.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 165.540 – Obtaining Contents of Communications
2
Oregon State Legislature. HB 2459 – Privacy of Videoconferences
3
Oregon.gov. Statewide Policy Recording Workplace Conversations
4
Oregon State Legislature. Secret Recordings Technical Fix (HB 2129)
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 30.831 – Action for Invasion of Personal Privacy
6
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 12.110 – Actions for Certain Injuries Not Arising on Contract
7
Justia. Recording Phone Calls and Conversations Under the Law – 50-State Survey
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2511 – Interception and Disclosure of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Prohibited