Call Recording & Transcription.

Last updated: 2 November 2026

1. Who this applies to

Call recording and transcription are optional features, off by default. This notice applies to your workshop in two cases: where it uses Pitlane Phones and an authorised user has turned recording on and acknowledged the consent requirement in Settings (section 2), or where it switches the AI receptionist on for a site, because every call the AI answers is recorded and transcribed and a caller no one can take may leave a voicemail (section 3).

If your workshop has done neither, no calls are recorded through Pitlane HQ and no transcripts exist, and nothing else in this notice applies to you, with one exception: once Pitlane has made the AI receptionist available to your workshop and an owner or administrator has acknowledged its notice, a call our call handling fails to answer can go to a recorded voicemail even while the AI receptionist is off (section 3).

As at the date above, Pitlane Phones is not yet available on our production service, so no calls are being recorded through Pitlane Phones. This notice is published in advance so the obligations are clear before anyone can switch the feature on, and it will be updated when the feature becomes available.

The AI receptionist works differently: it is off by default, applies to workshops that switch it on (and, for the voicemail after a fault, to workshops that have acknowledged its notice), records and transcribes every call it answers, and records a voicemail when no one can take a call. Section 3 covers it.

2. What we do when recording is enabled

• An announcement is played. Our telephony provider, RingCentral, plays a recording announcement at the start of the call. This is a control we provide, not a legal opinion that the announcement is sufficient in your State — see section 5.
• Audio is captured and stored if you have enabled audio storage. Playback is restricted in code to authorised users of your own workshop. Our production storage is in Australia; the providers and their locations are set out in our Sub-processors list rather than restated as a guarantee here.
• A transcript may be generated — either live during the call or afterwards — using automated speech-to-text. Transcripts are text records of what was said, held against the call record.
• AI may summarise the transcript into key points where you have that feature enabled. As with all our AI output, a summary is a draft, not a record of fact, and the audio and transcript remain the source of truth.
• Retention is yours to set. You choose a retention period in months, and you can turn audio storage off entirely while keeping transcripts. At the end of that window we delete both the audio and the transcript, including any AI summary generated from it. Deletion runs on a scheduled sweep rather than at the exact moment the period expires, so read the retention period as “deleted shortly after” rather than to the minute. The fact that a call was transcribed stays in the record; the content does not. If you need something destroyed sooner, ask us and we will do it.
• Acceptance is recorded. Enabling recording requires an explicit acknowledgement, and we store which user acknowledged it and when, in the audit log. (An earlier version of this notice also said “from where”. The audit record does not capture an IP or location, so that was inaccurate and has been removed.) The record exists to protect you: if a caller ever disputes a recording, you can show when the obligation was accepted, and by whom.

3. AI receptionist calls

Where a workshop turns the AI receptionist on for a site, calls to that site's texts number can be answered by an AI agent, in the placement the workshop chooses for that site: after hours, when no one answers, or every call. Section 2 describes Pitlane Phones recording; this section is what differs for calls the AI answers.

• The caller is told at the start. Every call starts with “Thanks for calling [the workshop's name]. This call is recorded and transcribed.” unless the workshop turns on “Tell callers they're speaking with an AI” in the AI receptionist settings. That setting is off unless the workshop turns it on. When it is on, the first words are “You're speaking with [the workshop's name]'s AI assistant, and this call is recorded and transcribed.” The notice is followed by the workshop's own greeting. A workshop can change the greeting but not the recording sentence. If a caller asks whether they are speaking with a real person, the AI says it is the workshop's AI assistant. The opening does not mention that the call is handled overseas. This notice, our Privacy Policy and our Sub-processors list disclose AI use and overseas processing. The AI speaks this notice itself; it does not rely on the RingCentral announcement in section 2.
• Every AI call is recorded and transcribed. Unlike Pitlane Phones, there is no setting to turn audio storage off for calls the AI answers. The one exception is a caller who objects, described next.
• A caller who objects. The AI is instructed that, if a caller objects to the recording or to speaking with an AI, it first records the objection and then tells the caller that the workshop will not keep the audio of the call, that the conversation is still processed live so it can help, and that a written transcript is kept so the team gets the message. It does not say that recording has stopped. It then carries on with a message, a booking request or, where the workshop has set that up and the caller wants it, a transfer to the team; a call-back task tells staff to call back without recording. We then delete every recording we hold for the call, including a voicemail left on it, and ask ElevenLabs to delete its copy of the conversation once the transcript has reached us, or about a day after the objection if it has not. We keep the transcript and summary, the objection included, for the workshop's transcript period. Both deletions wait while the call is held to meet a legal obligation.
• Acknowledgement comes first. The AI receptionist cannot be turned on until an owner or administrator of the workshop acknowledges the recording notice callers hear. We store which user acknowledged it and when, and the change is recorded in the audit log. Until that acknowledgement exists, the AI does not answer calls.
• The call is handled overseas. ElevenLabs, in the United States, runs the conversation, using an Anthropic Claude model accessed through ElevenLabs, and writes the transcript and summary. It then sends us the recording, transcript and summary, which we store in Australia against the call record. Each workshop's agent is set to have ElevenLabs keep the call for 30 days. If the caller objects to the recording, we ask ElevenLabs to delete it sooner, as described above. Our Sub-processors list sets out what ElevenLabs receives.
• Retention is the workshop's to set, separately for AI calls. The workshop chooses how long we keep recordings (90 days unless it changes this) and, separately, transcripts, summaries and notes (365 days unless it changes this), anywhere from 30 days to 7 years. After that we delete them, and we ask ElevenLabs to delete its copy if it still holds one. Deletion runs on a scheduled sweep, so read the period as “deleted shortly after”. A call whose caller objected loses its audio sooner, as described above; its transcript and summary follow the transcript period. The record that a call happened, its charges and the audit log stay. So do the messages, call-back notes and call summaries the AI saves to staff tasks, and the booking requests it sends: they are kept like the workshop's other tasks and booking requests, and these retention periods do not apply to them.
• What the AI can do on the call. It can take a message, send a booking request that staff accept or decline, or, when the workshop has set it up to, pass the call to the workshop's team. It tells a caller a job's stage only after they read back a code texted to the mobile number the workshop holds for that customer. It does not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about the caller.
• Voicemail when no one can take the call. Where a workshop has the AI receptionist and neither a person nor the AI can take a call, for example when the AI cannot start, a forwarded call goes unanswered or an AI call reaches its time limit with the caller still on the line, Twilio asks the caller to leave a message after the tone and records it. That prompt does not repeat the recording notice, and a caller who never reached the AI has not heard it. We copy the voicemail to our storage in Australia, ask Twilio to delete its copy, and keep it for the workshop's recording period above. The same voicemail can follow a fault in our call handling at any workshop where Pitlane has made the AI receptionist available and an owner or administrator has acknowledged its notice, even while the AI receptionist is off.

4. Our role and yours

In privacy terms: the recordings and transcripts are your records of your customers' personal information. We hold them on your behalf as a processor under our Data Processing Addendum. We do not listen to your calls.

Transcripts are sent to our AI provider when you use the after-call summary or follow-up extraction features — that is the feature doing its job, and it happens only for your own workshop's calls. For AI receptionist calls the transcript and summary are written by ElevenLabs during and after the call (section 3). Where a workshop has the AI receptionist, we also read its past call transcripts and texts to suggest answers the AI receptionist could give; staff must approve each one before it is used, and the workshop can turn this off. We do not use your recordings or transcripts to train models, and nothing from your calls is used to build a model served to another customer.

5. The legal position, stated honestly

Recording a private conversation is governed by State and Territory legislation — for example the Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 (Qld), the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW), the Surveillance Devices Act 1999 (Vic), and equivalents elsewhere. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles apply on top, because a recording is personal information.

These regimes differ from each other in ways that matter. Whether it is enough to announce the recording, or whether every party must actively consent, is not uniform across Australia. Nor is the answer always obvious for a call that crosses State lines — which, for a phone call, is common.

We are not able to give you legal advice, and we are not going to imply that switching a feature on makes you compliant. What we will say clearly:

• An automated announcement is a strong and widely-used control, and in some jurisdictions it is sufficient for the caller. Do not assume it is sufficient everywhere, or for your own staff.
• If you record calls with staff on the line, workplace surveillance law may also apply — in New South Wales the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 requires written notice to employees before surveillance begins. Telling your staff is not optional politeness.
• Using or disclosing a recording is often regulated separately from making it. A recording you lawfully made can still be unlawful to share.
• Get advice for the States you operate in before you enable this. It is a short conversation with a lawyer and it is much cheaper than the alternative.

6. What we recommend you do

1. Confirm with a lawyer what your State requires, and whether an announcement alone is enough.
2. Keep the Pitlane Phones recording announcement enabled. Do not disable it to make calls feel smoother. The AI receptionist's recording notice cannot be turned off (section 3).
3. If you use the AI receptionist, you may want to turn on “Tell callers they're speaking with an AI”. This setting is off unless you turn it on (section 3). Mention AI call answering in your own privacy policy.
4. Tell your staff in writing before you turn recording on, and keep that notice. Put it in their employment paperwork.
5. Set the shortest retention period that meets your actual business need.
6. Turn off audio storage for Pitlane Phones calls if a transcript is enough for you — it materially reduces what you are holding. Calls the AI receptionist answers have no such setting (section 3); set a short recording retention for them instead.
7. Update your own privacy policy to say that you record calls and why.
8. Restrict which of your users can play back recordings.

7. If you are a caller, not a workshop

If you called an automotive workshop and heard a recording announcement, or were answered by its AI receptionist, the recording and transcript belong to that workshop, not to us. We store it for them.

To ask for a copy, ask for it to be deleted, or complain about being recorded, contact the workshop directly — they are the organisation that holds your information and they are the right party to answer. If you cannot get a response, you can contact us at privacy@pitlanehq.com.au; we cannot make decisions about a workshop's records, but we can make sure your request reaches them and we will follow up. You can also complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

8. Bay cameras

Camera-based features that identify vehicles arriving at a workshop bay are a separate matter with their own legal requirements, including surveillance-device and workplace-surveillance obligations. Those features are not enabled for any customer and will not be made generally available until that review is complete and a specific notice is published here.

9. Contact

• Privacy: privacy@pitlanehq.com.au
• General: hello@pitlanehq.com.au
• Phone: 07 4800 9005