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Short version: video-only recording in the common areas of your own home is generally legal. Audio recording requires every recorded party’s consent in about a dozen states. Recording in a bathroom, a bedroom used by someone other than you, or any space with a reasonable expectation of privacy is not legal regardless of location or reason. Covertly monitoring another person’s home, vehicle or property without legal right to do so is illegal surveillance, not home security, and nothing on this site describes how to do that.
Audio Recording: Two-Party Consent States
About a dozen states require all parties to a private conversation to consent before it can be legally recorded — not just the person doing the recording. States commonly cited in this category include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington, though exact classifications and legal definitions vary and can change. The remainder of US states are one-party consent, meaning only one person in the conversation (which can be the person recording) needs to consent.
Because this varies by state and can be legally nuanced, the simplest way to avoid the issue entirely is to disable audio recording and use video only, which is what a large share of hidden camera owners do specifically to sidestep consent-law complexity. Check your specific state’s current wiretap and eavesdropping statute, or consult an attorney, before enabling audio on any camera.
Spaces Where Recording Is Never Legal
Regardless of consent law or whose property it is, recording is essentially never legal in a bathroom, a bedroom used by anyone other than you, a changing room, or any space where a reasonable person would expect complete privacy. This applies even inside your own home if the space is used by another household member, a guest, or a tenant. There is no lawful home-security justification that overrides this.
Landlords and Tenants
Tenants generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy inside the living space they rent, and covertly recording them — including in the interior common areas of the unit they exclusively occupy — can violate landlord-tenant law and state recording statutes, independent of the fact that you own the property. Cameras in genuinely shared building areas (a lobby, a shared laundry room) sit in a different, generally more permissive legal category, but rules vary significantly by state and lease terms. Never place a camera inside a tenant’s private living space without their knowledge and, in most jurisdictions, explicit agreement.
Employers and Employees
Workplace monitoring law gives employers more latitude than a residential context, but it is not unlimited. Hidden cameras in a break room, restroom, or other space with a reasonable expectation of privacy are typically illegal regardless of employer intent, and many states require some form of notice or written policy disclosure for employee monitoring even where covert recording of general work areas is otherwise permitted. This is a genuinely complex area of law that varies significantly by state — consult an employment attorney before implementing any covert workplace monitoring.
Childcare Monitoring: The Common Lawful Case
Monitoring a nanny, babysitter or au pair in the common areas of your own home — a playroom, living room, kitchen — with video is the most common and most clearly lawful use case for a hidden camera, and it’s covered in detail in our nanny cam covert security guide. The same audio-consent and never-legal-spaces rules apply here as everywhere else.
What This Site Does Not Cover
This hub does not provide, and will never provide, instructions for covertly tracking, recording or surveilling another person, their vehicle, or their property without legal right to do so. If you believe you are the target of unlawful covert surveillance, a hidden camera detector may help identify a device — see best hidden camera detector — and contacting law enforcement or an attorney is the appropriate next step, not self-directed countermeasures.
Ready to Choose a Camera?
With the legal framework understood, see best hidden camera for ranked picks suited to lawful home-security placement.