How does consent work before a recording starts?

Recording starts only after consent is confirmed in the product. Until that step is complete there is no capture — audio starts only in a consented session. Where it goes next depends on your profile: on AU Sovereign audio reaches Small Mercy’s private Australian cloud in Sydney; on the UK Sovereign region, into Small Mercy’s private United Kingdom cloud in London; on Global, audio and transcripts are processed by vetted global providers under your organisation’s consent.

When the room changes

Small Mercy asks again when someone new can hear the conversation. A registrar stepping in, a carer, an interpreter joining partway — the consent already given was given for a different room, so it is asked for again rather than assumed.

This holds on every surface. A watch or phone may capture the conversation, but the same consent gates apply on every platform, including audio relayed from a paired watch.

What consent to record covers — and what asks separately

Consent to record covers the recording. The session’s usual Small Mercy-managed processing runs under a separate authority — the consent your organisation gives for that processing: on AU Sovereign, transcription and note drafting run on vetted Australian services over private links inside Small Mercy’s cloud, disclosed on every note. One consent is given for each consultation; the other is given once, by the organisation. Speaker identity, including any voice profile, is matched only on Small Mercy’s own infrastructure and never sent to a provider.

A Small Mercy-managed route beyond that pathway asks separately. It never processes outside Australia on the strength of a default: an offshore route runs only after clear disclosure and explicit acceptance for that specific session and purpose, never pre-authorised, never carried to the next session. Sending a confirmed document to connected practice software is a separate clinician action into the vendor account. On Global, processing follows the organisation profile and consent selected at sign-up. There’s more in how consults are processed.

What the patient can see

“You agreed before any recording started” is one of the live checks in the patient-facing privacy view — a check against the running system during the consult, not a line in a policy. See what the patient sees, or the fuller account on privacy by design.

What it doesn’t do for you

The in-product step gates the recording. It does not discharge your own obligations: you remain responsible for using Small Mercy within your own clinical governance, professional obligations, and applicable regulations. Small Mercy is a documentation aid, not a diagnostic device, and it must never invent, suggest or infer a diagnosis, dose, management plan or other clinical fact absent from the source; required gaps stay [not stated].