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Missouri Recording Laws (2026): One-Party Consent Rules

Independently fact-checked against primary sources (last audited August 15, 2026). · Reviewed by the RecordingLaw editorial team. · Law checked current as of August 7, 2026. · 36 primary sources cited on this page. How we verify our legal content

Missouri Recording Laws (2026): One-Party Consent Rules

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Missouri a one-party or two-party consent state?

Missouri is a one-party consent state for audio under Mo. Rev. Stat. section 542.402.2(3). A participant in a phone call or wire communication may record without notifying the other party, provided the recording is not made for a criminal or tortious purpose. For in-person private conversations, the rule is doctrinally unsettled: the consent exception is textually anchored to 'wire communication,' and section 542.400(8) defines 'oral communication' with a reasonable-expectation-of-privacy gate. Conservative practice is all-party consent for sensitive in-person recordings.

Can I record a phone call in Missouri without telling the other person?

Yes, if you are a party to the call. Section 542.402.2(3) lets a participant record without notifying the other party. The exception does not apply if the recording is for a criminal or tortious purpose. If the call crosses into a stricter state (California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, or Washington), the more protective state's law typically governs. Oregon requires all-party consent for in-person conversations but stays one-party for calls, so it does not trigger this warning. St. Louis residents calling into Illinois have routine exposure to Illinois all-party rules.

Is recording someone in person in Missouri a crime?

It depends on the setting and purpose. For private conversations where the speaker has a reasonable expectation of privacy, the law is unsettled: the consent exception in section 542.402.2(3) may not cover oral-communication captures, making all-party consent the prudent choice. For visual recording: section 565.252 criminalizes capturing a person in the nude in a private place or capturing images under clothing without consent. Both offenses carry criminal and civil exposure.

What is the penalty for illegal recording in Missouri?

Criminal: Class E felony under section 542.402.1, punishable by up to 4 years prison and up to $10,000 fine. Civil: the greater of $100 per day of violation or $10,000 minimum under section 542.418, plus punitive damages for willful violations, plus attorney fees and litigation costs. The $10,000 civil floor is one of the strongest in any one-party consent state.

Are Ring doorbells and nanny cams legal in Missouri?

Generally yes, with limits. A doorbell camera facing a front porch typically does not violate section 565.252 because visitors there lack a reasonable expectation of privacy in their visual presence. For audio: if the homeowner is not a party to the conversation, the wiretap analysis applies. Nanny cams are lawful for visual capture in common areas, but cameras in bathrooms or rooms where workers have a privacy expectation can violate section 565.252. For audio capture of caregivers, written consent is the safest practice.

Can I record the police in Missouri?

Yes, but with significant caveats. The Eighth Circuit has not clearly established a First Amendment right to record police, unlike every other federal circuit. Molina v. Book (8th Cir. 2023) and Robbins v. City of Des Moines (8th Cir. 2021) grant qualified immunity on pure right-to-record First Amendment claims. Passive observation is protected under Chestnut v. Wallace (8th Cir. 2020). Fourth Amendment seizure claims remain available if officers take your camera or phone without probable cause.

Can my employer record me at work in Missouri?

An employer who is a party to a workplace conversation may record under Missouri's one-party rule. Cameras in restrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas violate section 565.252 regardless of who operates them. Blanket no-recording policies remain subject to NLRB Stericycle (372 NLRB No. 113, 2023) challenge if they could reasonably chill employees' Section 7 rights.

Has Missouri criminalized deepfakes or AI-generated intimate images?

Not yet as of June 5, 2026. The Missouri House passed HB 2321 in April 2026, but it was not signed into law at publication. Earlier bills SB 1444 and SB 1424 (2024) failed. Missouri's current nonconsensual intimate image statute, section 573.110, covers only actual photographs, films, and digital recordings, not AI-generated or synthetic imagery. Separately, 2026 H.B. 2273 (Evan's Voice Act) raises the penalties for sections 573.110 and 573.112 starting August 28, 2026, but does not close the AI-generated-image gap. Victims can use the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12, effective May 19, 2025) to request platform removal of deepfake content.

Updates

Corrected the name of Missouri’s visual-recording offense: section 565.252 is simply "invasion of privacy," not "invasion of privacy in the second degree," since the degree structure was repealed effective January 1, 2017.

Added Missouri's new 2026 felony-tier escalation for sections 573.110 and 573.112 (effective August 28, 2026, H.B. 2273, "Evan's Voice Act"), corrected the good-faith defense citation and the in-person-recording statutory language to match the actual statute text, fixed a dead Attorney General Sunshine Law link, corrected a misnamed case in the changelog, and corrected an interstate-call comparison that had wrongly listed Oregon as requiring all-party consent for phone calls.

Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources

Corrected the section 542.418 civil-remedy description: the $100/day-or-$10,000 figure is a floor under actual damages (you recover actual damages, or that floor if higher), not a separate award added on top of actual damages.

Governing law re-checked for recent changes

Reviewed and approved by an editor

Restructured for readability: condensed 12,000-word page to tight core sections (AEO lede, at-a-glance table, in-person consent, phone calls, hidden cameras, penalties table, police recording), compressed special topics (workplace, body cams, deepfakes, federal overlay, public meetings) to single focused paragraphs, added in-depth index by type and relationship, refreshed FAQ. Verified load-bearing facts against revisor.mo.gov primary sources: section 542.402.2(3) consent rule confirmed, section 542.418 $10,000 civil floor confirmed, section 565.252 Class A misdemeanor to Class E felony aggravators confirmed, section 558.011 and 558.002 Class E felony caps confirmed. Updated deepfake status: Missouri House passed HB 2321 in April 2026 but not yet signed by governor as of June 5, 2026 (upgraded from May 10, 2026 snapshot). All banlisted URLs removed; all primary-source citations preserved.

Refreshed for 2026. Added Molina v. City of St. Louis, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023), rehearing en banc denied 65 F.4th 994, cert. denied (No. 23-227), as the lead Eighth Circuit record-the-police precedent and noted the material doctrinal divergence from every other federal circuit. Added Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021, not 2025), and Chestnut v. Wallace, 947 F.3d 1085 (8th Cir. 2020), as the supporting Eighth Circuit framework. Resolved the section 542.402.1(2) plus 542.400(8) in-person consent ambiguity conservatively, recommending all-party consent practice for in-person private conversations with reasonable expectation of privacy and framing the Reporters Committee reading as a competing scholarly interpretation. Documented that Missouri has NOT enacted any deepfake or AI-generated intimate image statute as of May 10, 2026 (SB 1444 and SB 1424 in 2024 failed; HB 362 in 2025 plus the 2026 reintroductions SB 1748, SB 1117 'Taylor Swift Act', and SB 1444 are pending). Corrected the body-cam access regime to the Sunshine Law at sections 610.100, 610.205, and 610.021 (older drafts incorrectly relied on section 590.700, which governs custodial-interrogation recording). Updated FCC 24-24 to vacated by the Eleventh Circuit, mandate April 30, 2025, and removed stale 47 C.F.R. 64.501. Added NLRB Stericycle 372 NLRB No. 113 (Aug. 2, 2023), GC 25-05 (Feb. 14, 2025), and GC 25-07 (June 25, 2025) workplace overlay. Added TAKE IT DOWN Act federal compliance with platform-compliance deadline of May 19, 2026. Replaced commercial-codifier URLs with revisor.mo.gov, courts.mo.gov, ago.mo.gov, and uscode.house.gov. Populated previously empty keywords array.

Refreshed for 2026. Added Molina v. Book, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023), rehearing en banc denied 65 F.4th 994, cert. denied (No. 23-227), as the lead Eighth Circuit record-the-police precedent. Added Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021), and Chestnut v. Wallace, 947 F.3d 1085 (8th Cir. 2020). Resolved the section 542.402.1(2) plus 542.400(8) in-person consent ambiguity conservatively. Documented that Missouri has NOT enacted any deepfake or AI-generated intimate image statute. Corrected the body-cam access regime to the Sunshine Law at sections 610.100, 610.205, and 610.021 (older drafts incorrectly relied on section 590.700). Updated FCC 24-24 to vacated by the Eleventh Circuit. Added NLRB Stericycle, GC 25-05, and GC 25-07 workplace overlay. Added TAKE IT DOWN Act with platform-compliance deadline of May 19, 2026. Replaced commercial-codifier URLs with revisor.mo.gov, courts.mo.gov, ago.mo.gov, and uscode.house.gov.

Added wearable recording devices section and 2 FAQs

Sources and References

  1. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 542.400 (definitions)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  2. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 542.402 (criminal interception, Class E felony, one-party consent)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  3. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 542.418 (civil cause of action, $10,000 liquidated minimum)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  4. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 565.252 (invasion of privacy)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  5. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 573.110 (nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  6. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 573.112 (threatening nonconsensual dissemination)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  7. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 558.011 (felony imprisonment terms)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  8. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 558.002 (felony fines)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  9. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 590.700 (custodial interrogation recording)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  10. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 610.100 (mobile video recordings under Sunshine Law)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  11. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 610.205 (crime-scene closed-records carve-out)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  12. Mo. Rev. Stat. section 610.021 (general investigative-records exemption)(revisor.mo.gov).gov
  13. Missouri Attorney General Sunshine Law guide(ago.mo.gov).gov
  14. Missouri Supreme Court Advisory Committee Formal Opinion 123 (2006)(courts.mo.gov).gov
  15. Molina v. Book, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023)(ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov).gov
  16. Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021)(ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov).gov
  17. Chestnut v. Wallace, 947 F.3d 1085 (8th Cir. 2020)(ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov).gov
  18. ECPA, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2522(uscode.house.gov).gov
  19. DOJ Justice Manual section 9-7.302(justice.gov).gov
  20. FCC Declaratory Ruling 24-17 (AI voice in robocalls)(docs.fcc.gov).gov
  21. Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC (11th Cir. 2025) (FCC 24-24 vacatur)(media.ca11.uscourts.gov).gov
  22. FCC removal of One-to-One Consent Rule(fcc.gov).gov
  23. FCC consumer guide on recording phone calls(fcc.gov).gov
  24. TAKE IT DOWN Act, S. 146 (Pub. L. 119-12, signed May 19, 2025)(congress.gov).gov
  25. NLRB Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (Aug. 2, 2023)(nlrb.gov).gov
  26. NLRB GC 25-05 (Feb. 14, 2025)(nlrb.gov).gov
  27. NLRB GC 25-07 (June 25, 2025)(nlrb.gov).gov
  28. FTC v. Ring LLC (2023)(ftc.gov).gov
  29. 45 C.F.R. Part 164 (HIPAA Privacy Rule)(ecfr.gov).gov
  30. 12 C.F.R. Part 1006 (Regulation F)(ecfr.gov).gov
  31. 47 U.S.C. ch. 9 (CALEA)(uscode.house.gov).gov
  32. Missouri HB 2321 (2026) bill text(documents.house.mo.gov).gov
  33. Missouri SB 1117 (2026, Taylor Swift Act)(senate.mo.gov).gov
  34. Missouri SB 1748 (2026)(senate.mo.gov).gov
  35. Missouri SB 1444 (2024) bill text(senate.mo.gov).gov
  36. Missouri SB 1424 (2024) bill text(senate.mo.gov).gov
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