AI Notetaker Admin Controls: Enforce Recording, Sharing, and Retention (2026)

TL;DR: Circleback admins can lock recording, sharing, and retention settings for everyone on Business and up. Circleback adds SSO with SAML or OIDC, and SCIM, on Enterprise, with no seat minimum. Otter's admin locks and retention policies need Enterprise, and its SSO and SCIM need a 100-user license as of Oct 2026. Fireflies' auto-delete runs from 1 week to 1 year on Enterprise, at $39 per seat a month, billed annually.

Rolling out an AI notetaker to 150 people is easy. Keeping 150 people on the same recording, sharing, and retention settings is not. A default that members can override won't hold, so what you need is a setting a member can't change.

Every fact below comes from each vendor's own pricing page or help docs. We make Circleback, one of the tools on this list.

The short version

Circleback: best for locking every setting from one page

Circleback puts every workspace setting on one page, with a lock next to each. The Business plan adds default and enforced workspace settings. An admin sets a default from Settings → General, and selecting the lock next to a setting enforces it for every member. The settings covered are saving meeting audio and video recordings, automatic meeting tagging, vocabulary, meeting joining preferences, sharing defaults, email sending preferences, meeting participant name and image, and data retention.

Recording storage can be turned off while notes, action items, transcripts, and insights are still generated. When Circleback's bot joins a meeting with recordings off, it says in the meeting chat that no audio or video is being stored. Data retention, custom on Business and up, has three sliders: Recording, Transcript, and All meeting data. When a period expires, the data is permanently deleted across the workspace. Business also adds admin, member, and viewer roles, with unlimited free viewers. Enterprise adds single sign-on with SAML or OIDC, which admins can enforce. Setup guides cover Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google Workspace, and other providers connect through generic SAML or OpenID Connect. Optional directory sync uses SCIM to add and deactivate members through Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or generic SCIM 2.0, and it is set up separately from SSO. Neither has a seat minimum.

Strengths: Every workspace setting has its own lock, so an admin can enforce some and leave others as defaults. Retention is set separately for recordings, transcripts, and all meeting data. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II certified and doesn't use customer data to train models.

Limitations: Enforced settings, custom retention, and roles need Business, and SSO and SCIM need Enterprise. Data is processed in the United States, with no EU hosting option. The desktop app covers macOS Sonoma 14.2 or later and Windows, with no Linux app.

Who should pick Circleback: Admins who want one settings page with a lock per setting, retention by data type, and the option to keep notes without storing recordings.

Pricing: Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans. See current pricing for amounts and packaging.

Otter: best for large Otter workspaces with an account manager

Otter's admin controls live on its Enterprise plan, and many of them run through your account manager. SSO and SCIM carry a minimum 100-user license, custom data retention is set up by your Otter account manager, and Enterprise admins can lock Notetaker auto-join settings for all workspace members.

The retention policy is granular once set. Admins request a period of 24 hours or more, in days, months, or years. It can cover the full conversation, only the audio and video, only the transcript, or separate periods for each. Workspace auto-share settings are Enterprise-only and let admins choose which auto-share options members see, and the default. Otter states that this admin feature doesn't lock the auto-share preferences, though. The only way to lock is to remove every option except "Don't share - keep my notes private".

The Enterprise Admin Controls overview adds two harder switches. Disable External Sharing limits sharing to the workspace domain and overrides individual settings. Remove audio from conversations applies to every conversation in the workspace.

Strengths: Retention can differ for media and transcripts. External sharing and audio storage have workspace-wide switches, and auto-join can be locked.

Limitations: Nearly every control is Enterprise, and SSO and SCIM need a 100-user license. Retention, SCIM, and domain capture are set through an account manager rather than self-serve. Auto-share defaults can't be locked to a sharing option.

Who should pick Otter: Organizations already standardized on Otter at Enterprise scale, with an account manager for the controls that aren't self-serve.

Pricing: Free (Basic), Pro ($8.33/user/mo annual or $16.99 monthly), Business ($19.99/user/mo annual or $30 monthly, as of October 2026), and Enterprise (custom), per Otter's pricing page.

Fireflies: best for privacy and deletion rules by host or title

Fireflies gives admins rules, not just defaults. Workspace admins can set Autojoin for the entire team and stop members from changing it. Org-wide auto-delete, the Rules Engine, SSO, and SCIM sit on the Enterprise plan, at $39 per user per month, billed annually only.

Team Settings apply across the whole workspace: auto-record, the recording format, auto-delete, and the default privacy for all new meetings. Autojoin defaults to "Allow teammates to choose", and an admin can change it to a fixed option to prevent individual changes. Auto-delete is Enterprise-only and runs from 1 week to 1 year. Once an admin picks a value, teammates can't configure it, but it applies only to future meetings.

The Rules Engine, also Enterprise, matches title, host, participants, or internal versus external. It then routes, shares, overrides individual privacy settings, or deletes after 24 hours, 7, 14, or 30 days, or a custom period. Before rollout, note that the default recap privacy is "Teammates & anyone with link". The Enterprise Super Admin role also bypasses all privacy restrictions, including meetings marked "Only Me".

Strengths: Autojoin and recording format are set for the whole team. Rules can enforce privacy and deletion for specific hosts, titles, or external meetings.

Limitations: Auto-delete, the Rules Engine, SSO, and SCIM all require Enterprise, which is annual-only, and auto-delete doesn't touch past meetings. Super Admins can read everything.

Circleback's automations share or post meetings by similar conditions, on every plan.

Who should pick Fireflies: Admins who want conditional rules, by host, title, or meeting type, to lock privacy or set deletion for specific meetings.

Pricing: Free, Pro ($10-18/user/mo), Business ($19-29/user/mo), and Enterprise ($39/user/mo, billed annually), per Fireflies' pricing guide.

Fathom: best for capture and visibility defaults by team

Fathom sets defaults per team and per type of meeting. Its Organization Settings tab is only visible to account admins on its Teams pricing plans, and it sets the defaults for auto-capture, visibility, share links, and the bot. Retention, SSO, and SCIM are Enterprise-only.

Auto-capture and Team Visibility are set separately for external, internal, and unscheduled meetings. Capture can be On, Off, or Optional, and visibility can be All Teams, User's Team, Private, or User Choose. Admins decide whether users can change visibility after a default is applied, with a lock icon showing how much freedom is left. The organization page also carries a Disable Bot-Free Capture switch, which makes every member, admins included, capture with the Fathom Notetaker bot. There's a default share-link setting too, including Anyone @yourdomain, and Enterprise adds Restrict Anonymous Recording Access, which removes the "Anyone with the link can view" option.

Retention is Enterprise too. The settings page lists a Retention Period that deletes recordings, transcripts, and summaries after a set time. Fathom's retention article says setting a policy for all users "isn't self-serve yet", asks admins to email help@fathom.video, and supports a single policy per team.

Strengths: Capture and visibility defaults are set per meeting type and per team, with three levels of lock. Admins can force the bot for everyone.

Limitations: Retention is Enterprise-only, requested through support, with one policy for the whole team. SSO and SCIM are Enterprise-only, and the pricing page describes provisioning as Okta SCIM.

Who should pick Fathom: Sales and customer teams that want capture and visibility defaults per team and accept the bot as the enforced capture path.

Pricing: Free, Premium ($16-20/user/mo), Team ($15-19/user/mo), Business ($25-34/user/mo), and Enterprise (talk to sales), per Fathom's pricing page.

Granola: best for a retroactive link-sharing policy

Granola starts from the other end: it never keeps audio. It deletes audio after transcription on every plan, and its Enterprise plan, at $35 per user per month, adds workspace-wide sharing settings, org-wide auto-deletion periods for transcripts, SSO, and SCIM group provisioning.

Capture can't be enforced. Granola's security FAQ says audio is cached only for transcription and then deleted, and its feature requests page says automatically starting Granola for all meetings is under consideration. Sharing can be enforced. On Enterprise, an admin picks one of three levels in sharing controls for the whole workspace: allow public links, only people at your company, or restricted access with no links at all. It applies retroactively to existing notes and folders, and individuals can't exceed it.

Workspace-wide retention is Enterprise and transcript-only. Notes and transcripts are kept indefinitely unless a retention policy is configured, and the Enterprise settings page says to contact your CSM or Granola to set how long raw transcripts are kept. SSO and SCIM need Enterprise with at least 50 active workspace members, or a 50-seat commitment, and admins can turn on Enforce SSO login.

Strengths: No audio is retained, which removes the recording-storage question entirely. Enterprise lets an admin opt the whole organization out of model training.

Limitations: An admin can't make Granola capture every meeting. Retention covers transcripts and is configured through your CSM, and notes have no documented auto-deletion. On Free and Business, anonymised data may be used for Granola's model improvements by default.

Circleback can keep no recordings either: on Business, an admin can turn off recording storage for everyone and lock it, and notes, action items, transcripts, and insights are still generated. Its joining preferences can be locked too, so an admin decides which meetings the bot joins.

Who should pick Granola: Leadership, people, and legal teams that want one sharing policy applied to every existing note, and whose members start notes themselves.

Pricing: Free (Basic), Business ($14 per user per month), and Enterprise ($35 per user per month), per Granola's pricing page.

Read AI: best for per-role transcript and playback permissions

Read AI lets members tighten a setting but never loosen it. Its Workspace settings, on Pro and up, let admins limit meeting auto-join to their chosen option or anything stricter. Most settings can be forced with "Do not allow users to update this preference". Custom retention, SAML SSO, and SCIM need Enterprise+, at $29.75 per user per month, billed annually, with a five-license minimum.

In the workspace settings article, whatever the admin picks for Meeting Auto-Join Preferences limits members to that option or a more restrictive one. If Audio and Video Playback is turned off, Read deletes the underlying recording after the report is generated. Auto-Report Sharing is set separately for internal and external participants. Link access defaults to no link access, workspace members, or anyone with the link, and public links can be disallowed.

Transcripts and playback can be visible to admins only, admins and managers, or everyone, and Delete Meeting Reports can be set to no one. The Enterprise+ retention policy deletes meeting reports and Ask Read history after a set number of days. It allows different periods for different types of data and applies to all past, current, and future data in the workspace.

Strengths: Auto-join follows a "your option or stricter" model, so members can tighten it but not loosen it. Transcript and playback visibility is set per role. Retention reaches past data and can differ by data type.

Limitations: Retention, SSO, SCIM, domain capture, and audit logs need Enterprise+ and at least five licenses. All licenses in a workspace have to be on the same plan, and Free users can't be in a workspace.

Who should pick Read AI: Admins who need role-based access to transcripts and recordings, and a retention policy that covers meetings already in the workspace.

Pricing: Free, Pro ($15-19.75/user/mo), Enterprise ($22.50-29.75/user/mo), and Enterprise+ ($29.75-39.75/user/mo, 5 or more licenses), per Read AI's pricing page.

Avoma: best for revenue teams already using Avoma

Avoma locks recording and visibility at the organization level. Its pricing page puts Enforce Org-level Policies on the Organization plan, at $29 per recorder seat per month, billed annually. Retention, SSO (SAML or OIDC), and SCIM are on Enterprise.

Recording Policies live under Settings → Organization and need the Admin role. For internal and for external meetings, the admin chooses to record when a member is the host only, a participant only, or either. Organization settings apply org-wide and override individual user settings, and a locked rule can't be changed in personal preferences. Privacy settings work the same way. There's a default visibility for internal and for external meetings (Private to Participants, Visible to Specific Teams, or Visible to Organization) and an optional Lock. The pricing page puts Data Retention Policies under Enterprise, alongside team-specific access controls and audit logs, but doesn't list a range there.

Strengths: Recording rules and visibility defaults both have a lock. Enterprise adds SSO with SAML or OIDC, SCIM, and team-specific access controls.

Limitations: Retention needs Enterprise, which is annual-only with a 10-seat minimum, and the pricing page lists no range. Pricing is per recorder seat, so a 150-person rollout is priced on who records, not who reads.

Circleback's Business plan locks similar choices: joining preferences cover internal and external meetings and meetings organized by someone else, and sharing defaults can be locked too.

Who should pick Avoma: Customer-facing teams already using Avoma for its CRM workflows that need locked recording and visibility rules.

Pricing: Startup ($19-29/recorder seat/mo), Organization ($29-39/recorder seat/mo), and Enterprise ($39/recorder seat/mo, billed annually only, with a minimum of 10 paid seats), per Avoma's pricing page. Viewers are free.

Fellow: best for recording rules by keyword, with hard exceptions

Fellow lets admins write recording rules with hard exceptions. Its Enterprise plan, at $25 per user per month, billed annually, and starting at 10 users, adds workspace-level auto-record policies. Admins write rules by internal or external attendees, number of invitees, and keywords. They lock them so existing users can no longer change the setting, and they add restrictions under which matching meetings are never recorded.

The Recording page in workspace settings is where admins decide how the Note Taker works for everyone. It covers whether AI features are on at all, which recording methods are allowed, the auto-record default, and who gets a recording disclosure email. Where people can choose for themselves, a lock decides whether they may. Meeting recording auto-deletion, also Enterprise, sets two retention periods in days: one for recordings (video, audio, transcript, and clips) and one for AI notes. 0 days deletes each recording as soon as processing finishes, with no exceptions per user or per meeting.

Note visibility isn't an admin setting. By default, only calendar attendees can see a note's contents, and workspace administrators get no additional note visibility. The workspace Sharing page does control how notes leave the workspace. It sets who can share meetings (Anyone or Admins only), whether public links to AI notes and recordings can be created, whether notes can be sent to connected tools, and the default for auto-emailing AI notes, which admins can lock. Fellow notes that some of these settings depend on your plan. SSO with Okta or OneLogin and SCIM provisioning both require Enterprise.

Strengths: Rules plus restrictions cover both "always record" and "never record". Retention goes down to zero days and is split between recordings and AI notes.

Limitations: Auto-record policies and auto-deletion are Enterprise-only. Note visibility follows the calendar invite rather than an admin-set default. On Free, every member can change workspace settings.

Who should pick Fellow: Companies that want precise recording rules with hard exceptions and already run agendas and action items in Fellow.

Pricing: Free, Team ($7-11/user/mo), Business ($15-23/user/mo), and Enterprise ($25/user/mo, billed annually, starting at 10 users), per Fellow's pricing page.

Locked or just defaulted

The question that matters most in a rollout is simple: can a member change it? Every tool here has defaults. Fewer let you lock them, and the lock often sits on a higher plan than the default.

Retention is the other trap. Some vendors let an admin set it in the product, and others set it for you through an account manager or support ticket. Some cover meetings you've already recorded, and others only apply going forward. If you have an existing library, that difference decides how much cleanup you'll do by hand.

Before you commit, run a pilot with a small group. Lock the settings you care about, then ask a member to change them. That will tell you more than any comparison post can, including this one.

SSO, SCIM, and seat minimums for a large rollout

Circleback single sign-on works with Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google Workspace, each with its own setup guide, and with any other provider through generic SAML or OpenID Connect. Directory sync is a separate, optional step. It uses SCIM to add new members and deactivate departing ones through Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or any SCIM 2.0 provider, so workspace membership follows the identity provider instead of a manual invite list.

Circleback sets no seat minimum for SSO or SCIM. Enterprise uses graduated volume pricing on annual billing, published on the pricing page. The per-user rate steps down at each user band, each rate applies to the users within its band, and adding users never changes the price of existing seats. Buying it requires no sales call. As of Oct 2026, Otter requires a minimum 100-user license for both SSO and SCIM, and Granola offers SSO on Enterprise for organizations with 50 or more seats.

Members provisioned through SCIM fall under the same admin controls as everyone else. Enterprise includes every Business admin control, so the locks on recording storage, joining preferences, sharing defaults, and data retention cover them too, along with admin and member roles and a usage dashboard.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI notetakers let an admin enforce recording settings for everyone?
Circleback (Business, with a lock on saving recordings and on joining preferences), Otter (Enterprise, locked auto-join), and Fireflies (Autojoin fixed for the team) all do. So do Fathom (Teams plans, auto-capture On or Off per meeting type), Read AI (Pro and up, the admin's option or stricter), Avoma (Organization plan, locked recording rules), and Fellow (Enterprise, auto-record rules with a lock). Granola has no setting that starts notes for every meeting, so capture can't be enforced there.

Which AI notetakers have an organization-wide data retention policy, and what is the range?
Circleback's Business plan has three sliders, for recordings, transcripts, and all meeting data. Otter Enterprise accepts any period of 24 hours or more, set through an account manager, with separate periods for media and transcript. Fireflies Enterprise runs from 1 week to 1 year and only covers future meetings. Fathom Enterprise supports one policy per team, requested from support. Read AI Enterprise+ sets days per data type and applies to past data. Fellow Enterprise sets days for recordings and AI notes separately, down to 0. Granola Enterprise covers transcripts through your CSM, and Avoma lists custom retention policies on Enterprise without a range.

Which AI notetakers support SSO and SCIM, and on which plan?
All eight offer SSO and SCIM on their top tier. Circleback Enterprise supports SAML and OIDC, lets admins enforce SSO, and syncs members with SCIM, with no seat minimum. As of Oct 2026, Otter Enterprise needs a minimum 100-user license for both. Fireflies Enterprise ($39 per user per month, annual only), Fathom Enterprise, and Fellow Enterprise (from 10 users) include both. Granola Enterprise documents SSO and SCIM for 50 seats or more, Read AI needs Enterprise+ with 5 or more licenses, and Avoma needs Enterprise with a 10-seat minimum.

Can an admin stop people from sharing meeting notes outside the company?
Yes, in most of these tools. Otter Enterprise's Disable External Sharing limits sharing to the workspace domain and overrides individual settings. Granola Enterprise can restrict the whole workspace to people at your company, or to no links at all, retroactively. Fathom Enterprise's Restrict Anonymous Recording Access removes the "Anyone with the link can view" option. Read AI can default link access to workspace members and disallow public links. Fireflies admins set the default privacy for all new meetings, and Circleback admins on Business set sharing defaults and can lock them.

Do admins get to read everyone's meetings?
It depends on the tool. Fireflies' Enterprise Super Admin bypasses all privacy restrictions, including meetings marked "Only Me", and Read AI's Global Report Access gives chosen admins every report. Otter admins see conversation titles but not content unless the owner shares it. Fellow administrators get no additional note visibility, and Avoma admins don't get automatic access to other users' private meetings.

What should an admin check before rolling an AI notetaker out to 150 people?
Four things. First, whether a setting can be locked or only defaulted: Otter's auto-share defaults can't be locked to a sharing option, and Fireflies' default recap privacy is "Teammates & anyone with link". Second, whether retention is self-serve and reaches past meetings. Otter, Fathom, and Granola set it through an account manager, support, or a CSM, Fireflies' auto-delete only covers future meetings, and Read AI's policy applies to past data. Third, the SSO and SCIM minimums: 100 users at Otter, 50 seats at Granola, 10 at Avoma and Fellow, and 5 licenses at Read AI. Fourth, participant notice. Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and Fellow can email attendees before a recorded meeting, and recording consent rules vary by jurisdiction. If you handle PHI, the top plan is usually also the one with the BAA.

Circleback's Business plan puts a lock on every workspace setting, from recording and sharing to retention. See current plans.

Last updated October 2026. Pricing and features change frequently. Check each tool's website for current information.