Is it legal to recording conversations in Austria?
This rebuilt rule page keeps the answer, scope, and future source links in one obvious place, without pretending the row is fully researched before official sources are attached.
Quick answer
Legal position
Current starter summary
Austria criminalises the unauthorised recording of non-public speech. The answer therefore depends on whether the conversation is public, whether consent exists, and whether another legal authority applies.
Conditions
What would need to be true
Do not record non-public speech without consent or another clear legal basis.
Exceptions
Known carve-outs or edge cases
The criminal-law source reviewed here is focused on non-public speech rather than every public setting.
Penalties
Penalty snapshot
No penalty summary has been entered yet.
Enforcement
How this may be enforced
Section 120 of the Austrian Criminal Code makes unauthorised recording of non-public speech a criminal issue.
More rules in Austria
Use the reset build to keep country pages useful even before every row is fully sourced.
download pirated movies
Austria’s official online safety guidance says file-sharing downloads of music and films are not permitted and warns against using unlawful sources.
gamble online
Online gambling in Austria is only lawful when it is offered under the Austrian gambling regime. The Finance Ministry says internet games with centrally decided results are electronic lotteries and require permission.
stream pirated content
Austria’s official online safety guidance says it is controversial whether streaming unlawful content is allowed and distinguishes mere viewing from downloading.
use a vpn
No Austrian official source reviewed here bans ordinary VPN use, and CERT.at explicitly recommends using a VPN for remote access in several security contexts.
Compare this activity in other countries
This makes the rule page useful for comparison without creating a second data source.
Australia
Australia does not have a single clean national yes or no answer for recording conversations because relevant surveillance and monitoring rules differ across states and territories and the federal privacy guidance points people to those local laws.
Canada
Recording a private conversation in Canada is not a clean yes or no because the Criminal Code bans knowingly intercepting a private communication unless one of the parties consents or another exception applies.
Denmark
Official Danish sources say secret listening to or recording conversations between other people is prohibited, while recordings that process personal data must satisfy data-protection rules on necessity, lawful basis, information and storage.
France
Secret recording of a conversation is not a clean lawful default in France and Service Public says audio or video recordings made without consent are disloyal evidence in ordinary civil proceedings.
About this row
Canonical dataset status
Official sources
Source URLs attached
Reset rule
Why the page is intentionally light
The new site should show a stable layout, a stable route, and clear source slots before the dataset is scaled up again. That keeps management simple and makes later official-source population safer.