Private meetings

What "private" hides, who can still see a private meeting, and what it doesn't protect against.

Marking a meeting private hides it from the rest of your organization, but not from the organization Owner. As long as owner oversight is turned on for your organization (the default), the Owner can open, edit, and share every meeting in the organization, including ones marked private. This is the single most surprising fact in VoiceCap's sharing model, so it's worth knowing before you rely on "private" to keep something from everyone in your organization.

What private actually means

Every new meeting starts private: only its author can see it. Nobody else in your organization gets access until you share it, whether that's with a person, a group, everyone in the organization, or a link.

Private does not hide a meeting from:

The organization Owner, when owner oversight is turned on.
An Admin the Owner gave oversight to, on Business.
Anyone you've directly shared it with, added to a group it's shared with, or turned on organization-wide access for.

An Admin does not automatically see a colleague's private meeting. Admins see what's shared with them the same way anyone else does: directly, through a group, or organization-wide, unless the Owner gave them oversight (see below).

What a colleague sees

A colleague who opens a link to your private meeting sees "This meeting is unavailable", the same page they'd see for a meeting that doesn't exist. They can click Request access to ask you for it. Nothing is shared unless you approve. See Requesting access.

Making a meeting private

Open the meeting and click the sharing control near the top of the page. It shows Private, Anyone with the link (private, with link sharing on), Everyone in your organization, or a summary of who it's shared with, like "Shared with Sales team". It opens a panel titled "Who can see this meeting?".
Choose Private.

If the meeting was previously shared, switching back to Private removes every share at once: organization-wide access, every group, and every person, including anyone who joined through a share link. Link sharing stays as it is, though: if Anyone with the link can view is on, anyone with the link can still open the meeting. Turn that switch off too to stop link access; see Share links.

Open the meeting and click the sharing control near the top of the page.
Choose Everyone in your organization.

The change applies right away: every member of your organization can open the meeting. To share with only some people or groups instead, choose Specific people & groups. Everyone keeps access until you pick the first person or group; see Sharing with a person.

Turning off owner oversight

An organization Owner can turn off "Owner sees all meetings" in Settings > General. With oversight off, the Owner sees the same meetings as anyone else: their own, plus whatever's been shared with them directly, through a group, or organization-wide. Only the Owner can change this setting.

Oversight for admins

On Business, the Owner can give named Admins the same oversight: in Settings > Members, turn on Oversight next to the Admin's name. That Admin then sees every meeting in the organization, including private ones, and gets the team activity. Through oversight alone, an Admin can open and download a meeting, but not edit, delete or share it. Only the Owner can give oversight or take it back.

An Admin's oversight pauses while owner oversight is turned off, and while the organization isn't on Business. The switch then shows Paused, and the Admin sees only what's shared with them. It comes back when both are true again. The Owner can remove a paused grant at any time with Remove oversight. Changing the Admin's role, deactivating them, or making them the Owner removes it for good, and so does handing ownership to someone else: the new Owner can give oversight again.

Oversight is never hidden. While it's on, everyone sees in Settings > Members who can see team meetings: "Your owner can see team meetings.", or with the Admins named when any have oversight. On Business, giving and removing oversight are in the audit log, and so is every time someone opens a meeting through oversight.

What private doesn't do

It doesn't survive a member removal. If the meeting's author is removed from the organization, their meetings, including private ones, move to the Owner. See When someone leaves.
It doesn't block anyone who already has access from downloading the recording. Download follows view access, not a separate permission.