Compliance Recording: The New Standard for Google Meet
For organizations in regulated sectors like finance or healthcare, a missed meeting recording is more than a simple oversight. It can be a legal liability. Traditionally, administrators had to rely on individual employees to remember to hit the record button. This left too much room for human error.
Google recently addressed this gap with the introduction of Automated Compliance Recording for Google Meet. This feature moves the responsibility from the end user to the system itself, ensuring that every interaction is documented, archived, and secured without manual intervention.
In the past, ensuring compliance was a reactive process. IT teams would draft policies and hope users followed them. If a broker forgot to record a client call, the firm was out of compliance.
The new standard changes this dynamic. When enabled for a specific group of users, Google Meet automatically triggers a recording and a full transcript as soon as a monitored person joins the call. This process is immutable. Participants cannot stop or pause the recording once it starts.
All data is funneled directly into a secure Google Cloud Storage bucket. This storage is configured for WORM (Write Once, Read Many) compliance, meaning the files cannot be edited or deleted until the retention period expires. This is the exact level of data integrity required by regulators like FINRA or the SEC.
Why Admins Love It
Beyond just checking a compliance box, this feature simplifies the administrative burden.
Transparency: Every participant sees a permanent "Compliance" badge during the call. This ensures everyone is aware they are being recorded, which is vital for legal notice requirements.
Centralized Control: You no longer need to chase down recordings scattered across individual Google Drive folders. Everything goes to one bucket that you control.
Safety Net: If for some reason the recording cannot start because of a storage error, the monitored user is automatically removed from the call. While this sounds strict, it prevents unrecorded "off the record" conversations that could land a company in hot water.
Quick Guide: Deploying Compliance Recording in 5 Steps
Setting this up requires an Assured Controls or Business/Enterprise Plus license. Follow these steps to activate it for your regulated teams.
Step 1: Set Up Your Storage Bucket
Navigate to the Google Cloud Console and create a new Storage bucket. Ensure you enable Bucket Lock to meet WORM requirements. This prevents anyone, even an admin, from deleting records before the scheduled time.
Step 2: Grant Permissions
You must give the Google Workspace service account access to this bucket. In the Cloud Console, add the service account as a Storage Object Creator and Storage Legacy Bucket Reader. This allows Workspace to deposit the files securely.
Step 3: Target Your Users
Log in to the Google Admin Console. Go to Apps > Google Workspace > Google Meet > Compliance. Rather than turning this on for the whole company, select the specific Organizational Unit (OU) or Group that requires monitoring, such as your Sales or Compliance teams.
Step 4: Enable Archive Recording
Check the box for Compliance archive recordings. You will need to choose whether to record just the audio or both audio and video. Enter the name of the Google Cloud Storage bucket you created in Step 1 as the destination.
Step 5: Define Retention in Google Vault
Head over to Google Vault to set your retention rules for these Meet files. You can set them to be kept for a specific number of years or indefinitely. This ensures that even after a project ends, the record exists for future audits.
Final Thought for IT Leadership
Compliance Recording is a major shift toward a more resilient IT infrastructure where the system manages the risks so you do not have to. By automating this process, you protect your company from fines and protect your users from their own forgetfulness. It is a win for security and a win for peace of mind.