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

Alaska is a one-party consent state under AS 42.20.310. A participant in a conversation may record it without telling the other parties. The Alaska Supreme Court confirmed this in Palmer v. State, 604 P.2d 1106, 1108 n.5 (Alaska 1979). Recording by a non-participant is a Class A misdemeanor under AS 42.20.330 and a civil wrong.

Alaska recording law at a glance

Question	Answer
Consent rule	One-party: a participant may record without telling others
Main statute	AS 42.20.310 (Title 42, not Title 11)
When recording is illegal	A non-participant records without any party's consent
Criminal penalty	Class A misdemeanor: up to 1 year jail, up to $25,000 fine
Civil remedy	No state civil cause; use federal 18 U.S.C. 2520 or common-law tort
Hidden cameras	AS 11.61.123: Class A misd (adult), Class C/B felony (minor victim)
Recording police	Ninth Circuit First Amendment right; record openly in public

For the full legal framework, see Alaska recording laws in depth.

Recording in-person conversations in Alaska

Alaska's eavesdropping statute, AS 42.20.310, prohibits using an eavesdropping device to hear or record an oral conversation "without the consent of a party to the conversation." The phrase "a party" is the operative word: the Alaska Supreme Court held in Palmer v. State, 604 P.2d 1106, 1108 n.5 (Alaska 1979) that the statute reaches only third-party interception and does not apply to a participant. If you are in the conversation, you consent simply by being there.

The statute lives in Title 42 (Public Utilities and Carriers), not Title 11 (Criminal Law), a quirk of its 1972 enactment as a telephone-tampering provision. The "eavesdropping device" definition in AS 42.20.390 is broad, covering smartphones, wearables, and AI voice recorders.

Two caveats apply. The one-party safe harbor disappears if the recording is made for a criminal or tortious purpose, under both federal 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d) and Alaska common law: documenting harassment for HR is lawful, recording to facilitate blackmail is not. And a pending Governor-sponsored bill, SB 85, would convert Alaska to all-party consent by replacing "a party" with "all parties." As of June 2026 it is stalled in Senate Labor and Commerce Committee with no action since its February 5, 2025 introduction.

Recording phone calls in Alaska

The one-party rule applies equally to telephone, cell, and VoIP calls. If you are on the call, you may record it under AS 42.20.310 and the federal one-party floor at 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). The electronic-communication definition in AS 42.20.390 expressly covers cellular and cordless telephone communications.

Cross-border calls require care. If any party sits in California (Cal. Penal Code 632), Washington (RCW 9.73.030), or Oregon (ORS 165.540), those states require all-party consent. Courts generally apply the stricter rule, so the safest approach is to announce the recording to all parties at the start. Canadian calls are generally one-party under Criminal Code s. 184, though provincial privacy torts vary.

For more detail, see Alaska phone call recording laws.

Hidden cameras, doorbells, and nanny cams

Recording audio or video on your own property in ordinary living spaces is generally lawful under AS 42.20.310 and the First Amendment. The limit is places where someone has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

AS 11.61.123 makes it a crime to view or photograph the private exposure of the genitals, anus, or female breast of another person in a place where they reasonably expected not to be observed, such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and dressing rooms. "Picture" is defined to include electronic and digital formats, so smartphone cameras and smart-home devices are fully covered.

Penalty grades under AS 11.61.123:

• Adult victim: Class A misdemeanor (up to 1 year jail, up to $25,000 fine)
• Minor victim, viewing prong: Class C felony (up to 5 years)
• Minor victim, production prong: Class B felony (up to 10 years)

An affirmative defense covers posted security-surveillance systems with visible notice, same-sex monitoring, and use limited to crime prevention or prosecution. A nanny cam that captures audio conversations without any participant consenting is separately governed by AS 42.20.310, since the camera is then acting as an eavesdropping device.

For the full nonconsensual intimate imagery framework, see Alaska voyeurism and hidden camera laws and Alaska security camera laws.

Penalties for illegal recording in Alaska

Criminal penalties are set in AS 42.20.330, which grades every violation of AS 42.20.300 or AS 42.20.310 as a Class A misdemeanor. Sentencing and fines are governed by AS 12.55.135(a) and AS 12.55.035(b)(5). The $1,000 fine figure in some older summaries is stale.

Statute	Conduct	Grade	Jail	Fine
AS 42.20.310 via AS 42.20.330	Eavesdropping / illegal recording	Class A misd	1 year	$25,000
AS 42.20.300 via AS 42.20.330	Unauthorized publication	Class A misd	1 year	$25,000
AS 11.61.123 (adult victim)	Indecent viewing or production	Class A misd	1 year	$25,000
AS 11.61.123 (minor, viewing)	Indecent viewing of a minor	Class C felony	5 years	$50,000
AS 11.61.123 (minor, production)	Production of a picture of a minor	Class B felony	10 years	$100,000
AS 11.61.120(a)(6),(8)	Adult NCII distribution (harassment 2nd)	Class B misd	90 days	$2,000
18 U.S.C. 2511	Federal Wiretap Act	Federal felony	5 years	Federal guidelines

Civil remedies are not created by AS 42.20, which contains no express private cause of action. Victims have two routes. First, the federal ECPA civil action at 18 U.S.C. 2520 provides the greater of actual damages plus profits or statutory damages of at least $10,000 (or $100 per day), plus punitive damages and attorney fees, with a two-year statute of limitations. Second, the Alaska common-law intrusion-upon-seclusion tort (Restatement (Second) of Torts s. 652B), reinforced by Alaska Constitution Article I, Section 22, supports actual damages, emotional-distress recovery, and punitive damages under a two-year limitations period (AS 09.10.070).

Recording the police in Alaska

Alaska sits in the Ninth Circuit, which clearly establishes a First Amendment right to record law enforcement officers performing official duties in public. The governing rule comes from Askins v. DHS, 899 F.3d 1035, 1044 (9th Cir. 2018): "The First Amendment protects the right to photograph and record matters of public interest. This includes the right to record law enforcement officers engaged in the exercise of their official duties in public places." The foundational case is Fordyce v. City of Seattle, 55 F.3d 436 (9th Cir. 1995), which reversed summary judgment for a Seattle officer who allegedly smashed a videographer's camera during a public protest.

These decisions bind the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska and inform qualified-immunity analysis for Alaska officers under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Record openly, stand at a reasonable distance, and do not physically interfere with police operations. The Ninth Circuit right does not protect a recorder from a separate trespass or obstruction charge.

Note the constitutional overlay that runs the other direction: under State v. Glass, 583 P.2d 872 (Alaska 1978), Alaska police must obtain a search warrant before electronically monitoring a private conversation, even when one party consents. Alaska is therefore a hybrid jurisdiction: one-party for private civilian recording, warrant-required for police informant recording. The Alaska Court of Appeals reaffirmed Glass in Cleveland v. State (Alaska Ct. App. 2020), holding that the warrant must state with reasonable specificity the time, subject matter, and parties to the anticipated conversation.

For more detail, see Alaska laws on recording police.

Special topics in Alaska

Pending SB 85: the all-party consent conversion bill

SB 85 of the 34th Alaska Legislature is Governor Mike Dunleavy's bill replacing "a party" with "all parties" in AS 42.20.310(a)(1) to convert Alaska to all-party consent. It would also add peace-officer exemptions at proposed AS 42.20.320(8) and (9), letting police record civilians without consent during investigations while civilians lose the safe harbor for recording officers, an asymmetry the ACLU of Alaska flagged as a one-way accountability ratchet. Introduced February 5, 2025, it remains in Senate Labor and Commerce Committee with no action since. The 34th Legislature sunsets in early 2027; Alaska remains a one-party state under current law.

AI deepfakes and HB 47 (pending)

Alaska has no enacted deepfake criminal statute as of June 2026. HB 47 passed the House 39-0 on February 27, 2026 and sits in Senate Judiciary. It would criminalize distribution of a forged digital likeness (an AI clone used to defraud, harass, or intimidate) as a misdemeanor, distribution of a generated sexual depiction as a Class A misdemeanor, and AI-generated CSAM at felony level. Senate Community and Regional Affairs stripped the social-media restrictions and the $1 million per-occurrence AI-company civil penalty on April 9, 2026, citing First Amendment and single-subject concerns. Two companion bills are also pending in the 34th Legislature: SB 2 (election deepfakes; requires disclosure on election-related synthetic media and creates a civil cause of action) and SB 33 (synthetic-media defamation per se), both heard and held in Senate State Affairs Committee on April 29, 2025. The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, Pub. L. 119-12 (signed May 19, 2025) already covers nonconsensual intimate visual depictions including AI forgeries, with a 48-hour platform notice-and-removal window effective May 19, 2026.

Body-worn cameras

Alaska has no statewide body-worn camera statute; the framework is policy-based. DPS Operations and Procedures Manual Chapter 241 (effective May 1, 2023) governs State Troopers, Wildlife Troopers, Court Services Officers, Fire Marshal investigators, and Village Public Safety Officers; recordings are retained 26 months or until litigation resolves and are public records under the Alaska Public Records Act (AS 40.25.110), subject to the law-enforcement exemption at AS 40.25.120(a)(6). In Anchorage, AO 2024-69 (adopted July 31, 2024) codified APD body-camera policy, requiring release of officer-involved-shooting footage within 45 days and family viewing within 14 days.

Workplace recording and the NLRA

Under AS 42.20.310 and federal one-party consent, an employer or employee who is a party to a workplace conversation may lawfully record it. Blanket no-recording handbook rules are a separate question governed by Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (Aug. 2, 2023): such rules are presumptively unlawful if they tend to chill Section 7 activity, unless the employer shows a substantial legitimate interest and no narrower alternative. NLRB GC 25-05 (Feb. 14, 2025) rescinded prior guidance memos for backlog reasons but did not overrule Stericycle, and NLRB GC 25-07 (June 25, 2025) narrowly bars surreptitious recording of collective-bargaining sessions. See Alaska workplace recording laws.

Federal overlay: ECPA, Open Meetings, and cross-topic laws

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2522, sets the federal floor and supplies the principal civil remedy (18 U.S.C. 2520) for Alaska plaintiffs. FCC Declaratory Ruling 24-17 (Feb. 8, 2024) treats AI-generated voices in robocalls as "artificial or prerecorded voice" under the TCPA, requiring prior express consent. The Alaska Open Meetings Act (AS 44.62.310) opens most state and local public-body meetings to the public, where attendees may generally record subject to reasonable anti-disruption rules.

Recent legal developments

• February 5, 2025: Governor Dunleavy introduces SB 85, the all-party consent conversion bill, in the 34th Legislature. Bill stalls in Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.
• February 27, 2026: HB 47 (deepfake/AI CSAM bill) passes Alaska House 39-0; referred to Senate.
• April 9-10, 2026: Senate CRA committee strips social-media and $1M AI-company provisions from HB 47; bill referred to Senate Judiciary.
• May 19, 2025: Federal TAKE IT DOWN Act signed; platform takedown duty effective May 19, 2026.
• May 19, 2026: TAKE IT DOWN Act covered-platform 48-hour notice-and-removal window takes effect.

Alaska recording laws in depth

By type of recording

• Alaska Audio Recording Laws - one-party consent rules and penalties
• Alaska Phone Call Recording Laws - landline, cell, and VoIP
• Alaska Video Recording Laws - surveillance, filming, and consent
• Alaska Voyeurism and Hidden Camera Laws - AS 11.61.123 explained
• Alaska Dashcam Laws - recording rules and windshield mounting

By place or relationship

• Alaska Laws on Recording Police - First Amendment rights and Glass warrant overlay
• Alaska Laws on Recording in Public - filming, photography, and consent
• Alaska Workplace Recording Laws - employee and employer rights
• Alaska Landlord-Tenant Recording Laws - cameras, privacy, and disputes
• Alaska Medical Recording Laws - patient rights and HIPAA
• Alaska School Recording Laws - student privacy and FERPA
• Alaska Security Camera Laws - home, business, and surveillance rules

More Alaska laws

• Alaska Alimony Laws
• Alaska At-Will Employment Laws
• Alaska Child Custody Laws
• Alaska Child Support Laws
• Alaska Divorce Laws

This article is general legal information, not legal advice. Recording laws change and apply differently to each situation. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed Alaska attorney.