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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Generally it’s legal in 38 states, including Wisconsin, to record a conversation between two parties if at least one of them consents.

It generally would not be legal for a third party to record a conversation between two people, unless one of the two consented.

There are exceptions, said Wisconsin attorney Maxted Lenz. For example, two people talking loudly on a public bus don’t have an expectation of privacy. If a third party recorded them, it would not violate Wisconsin’s one-party law.

The law is not clear if a person in a one-party state wants to record a call with a person in a two-party state.

The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press says reporters should assume that the two-party state law applies.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.