Client meeting transcripts and AI data leakage: what an AI notetaker records and gives away in ChatGPT or Claude.

Recording a client meeting and letting a tool write it up has become routine. The transcript is the most complete record an accounting firm has of what a client said, so it is also the most tempting thing to paste into ChatGPT or Claude to produce minutes and action points. It carries the client’s worries, health, debts and the firm’s advice, line by line. This page marks every item in a realistic client meeting transcript that APES 110, the TPB Code and the Privacy Act bear on, shows where the tool makes mistakes, and shows how the same minutes are produced on Ermos inside the practice.

The client meeting transcript

Produced automatically after a client meeting that the firm recorded, then used to write the file note and the follow-up email.

Meeting transcript
Northgate Partners · Tuesday 27 October 2026, 2.30pm · Produced automatically by the meeting recorder on the firm laptop. Speaker labels assigned by the tool.

Present:

[00:00:38] Sarah Lindqvist:

[00:00:49] Daniel Okafor: Fine by me.

[00:00:51] Priya Okafor: Yes, that is fine.

[00:03:12] Daniel Okafor:

[00:06:45] Tom Nakamura:

[00:11:30] Sarah Lindqvist: The $89,000 you drew has to go under a complying loan agreement before the company lodges.

[00:12:05] Daniel Okafor:

[00:15:02] Daniel Okafor:

[00:19:40] Priya Okafor:

[00:23:10] Sarah Lindqvist:

[00:28:40] Sarah Lindqvist:

An invented transcript. Speaker labels and wording are invented. Hover or tap any highlighted line for the analysis; the full list is below.

What leaves the firm

  1. 1
    The attendees

    Four named people at a named firm and client. Personal information, and the key that ties each line below to a real person. Under TPB Code item 6 it is the client’s affairs that are protected, and the third party is anyone other than the client and the practitioner. TPB Code guide.

  2. 2
    The consent exchange

    A recorded agreement to record and transcribe. NSW surveillance devices law restricts recording a private conversation, and consent of the people in it is the usual answer, so the firm should keep this exchange. The consent covers the firm’s own recorder. It does not cover sending the transcript to another company, and TPB(GS) 55/2026 recommends telling the client where the data will go and whether AI tools may be used. TPB Code guide.

  3. 3
    A director’s health

    A named person’s health condition and treatment plan. Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, which applies to the firm where it is covered, with stricter rules on collection, use and disclosure. Patient data guide.

  4. 4
    The covenant and the firm’s estimate

    A lender’s covenant, its test date and the firm’s view that it will be breached. Contract terms and advice that the client has not yet acted on. APES 110 confidentiality guide.

  5. 5
    What the client can put in

    An amount from selling a personal asset and the limit of what the client will contribute. Personal financial information about a negotiating position. Privacy Act guide.

  6. 6
    A third party’s dividend

    What a company in administration may pay and when. A company that is nobody’s client, mentioned because of the client’s loss. APES 110 confidentiality guide.

  7. 7
    A former employee’s claim

    That an employee’s lawyer has written and what he wants, and an instruction about his pay. Sensitive to the employee and the client, and a live legal matter. Privacy Act guide.

  8. 8
    The firm’s advice on directors’ duties

    The partner’s recommendation that the directors take legal advice and consider safe harbour. Advice the client is paying for, said plainly once, and on the record. What to do is for the directors to decide. Checking AI output guide.

  9. 9
    A mistake the tool made

    The tool wrote “division seven eight agreement” where the speaker said Division 7A. Automatic transcripts contain errors, and TPB(GS) 55/2026 says practitioners should verify and review AI generated content. Where the transcript is processed does not change that. Checking AI output guide.

  10. 10
    The next meeting

    A date, time and room. With no client figure in the line, it exposes nothing beyond the fact that a meeting will happen.

What happens in Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)

  • The whole document is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia, under that country’s legal process. Some business plans offer storage in Australia, but the provider still receives the content.
  • On consumer tiers, prompts can be retained and used to train future models.
  • The provider’s staff and systems can reach the content under the provider’s own policies.
  • Once sent, the firm no longer controls it. Retention and deletion happen on the provider’s terms.

The same document on Ermos

Ermos Dominion

The document is drafted on a unit in your office, from your own templates and the client file. Every marked item stays on the unit, which keeps working with the internet switched off. Nothing in it is transmitted to an AI provider, so there is no disclosure to analyse: the confidentiality work is the same as for your file server.

Ermos Edge

Your documents, the index and your access boundaries stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre. When a staff member asks for this draft, only their question and the excerpts they are permitted to see go to a named Australian provider, who is contractually barred from keeping the content or training any model on it. Nothing is processed outside Australia.

Frontier Models (ChatGPT, Claude)Ermos EdgeErmos Dominion
Where the document is processedProvider servers, generally offshore on personal plansYour instance in an Australian data centre; answers generated in AustraliaThe unit in your office
Who can read itProvider staff and systems, under policyYour staff, within the boundaries you set. The named Australian provider processes only permitted excerpts, under contract, and keeps nothingYour staff only
Is it keptOn the provider’s termsKept on your instance; the provider is barred from retaining itStays on the unit
Can it train a modelOn consumer tiers, yesNo, by contractOnly your own unit learns from it, on your hardware

Part of AI data leakage in accounting firms. See how this works in practice: Client correspondence on Ermos.

Common questions

Do ChatGPT and Claude use the information in a client meeting transcript?
Yes, the transcript goes to the AI company's servers and is processed there to produce a reply once it is pasted or uploaded. As at October 2026, whether a conversation on a personal plan (ChatGPT Free, Plus or Pro; Claude Free, Pro or Max) can be used to train the models depends on a setting each user controls. Business plans (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise) and the developer APIs sit under commercial terms, and OpenAI and Anthropic each say they do not train on that content by default (OpenAI, Anthropic). On either product, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons can send a whole conversation back for training. This transcript holds Daniel Okafor's mental health care plan, the firm's estimate that the Westpac covenant will be breached and the partner's advice on directors' duties and safe harbour.
Is it safe to paste a client meeting transcript into ChatGPT or Claude?
No, a transcript is the fullest record of what the client said, and removing names does not change that. Removing names rarely makes a document anonymous. Information stays personal information while the person is reasonably identifiable, and the OAIC warns that information can be at risk of re-identification even when it has been de-identified or anonymised. A director on a mental health care plan, a covenant tested at 1.25 times against an estimate of 1.08 and an employee's lawyer seeking reinstatement describe one business. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends in its guidance on commercially available AI products that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, because of the significant and complex privacy risks.
Is it safe to use an AI note-taker or meeting recorder for a client meeting transcript?
Not without asking where the recording goes. Recording and transcription tools send the audio or transcript to the tool's vendor, so the same questions apply about where it is stored, whether it trains a model and who can review it. The OAIC's guidance also tells organisations to review carefully the terms and settings that will apply to their use of any AI product. The consent in this meeting covers the firm's own recorder, and it does not cover a transcript sent to another company. The tool also wrote 'division seven eight agreement' for Division 7A, so a person must read it.
How can an accounting practice use AI for a client meeting transcript without sending it to ChatGPT or Claude?
Ermos is built so the document stays under your control. On the Dominion AI unit it is drafted inside your office and none of it is sent to an AI provider. On Ermos Edge your documents and index stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre, and only the question and the excerpts the user is permitted to see go to a named Australian provider that is contractually barred from keeping them or training any model on them. Ermos writes the minutes and action points from the client file and the practice's own file note template. The partner checks them and signs the file note.
Do we need the client's consent to record a meeting?
Recording a private conversation is restricted under NSW surveillance devices law, and agreement of the people in the meeting is the usual answer, so the firm should get it at the start and keep the exchange. Separately, TPB(GS) 55/2026 recommends telling the client where information will be stored and whether AI tools may be used. The firm should take its own advice on the exact legal position.
Is health information said in a meeting covered by the Privacy Act?
Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, and a transcript that records a person's condition holds it. The Act applies to businesses above the small business turnover threshold and to some smaller ones, so coverage depends on the practice. APES 110 confidentiality applies to what a client says either way.
Why is a transcript worse than a file note?
A file note is a person's summary of what mattered. A transcript is everything said, including worries, health, debts and advice, with errors the tool made along the way. Pasting it into a frontier model sends all of it, and the firm still has to check the result against the recording before relying on it.

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