Surreptitious recording of audio

• Smart phones are designed to have decent audio pickup from several feet away, since they offer speakerphone capability.
  • You can start the recording, and just place your phone face down on the table, just like everyone does normally.
  • The audio quality may not be great, but it's usually legible at least.
• Lav (lavalier) mics are commonly used in filmmaking, and often have a wireless pack that they can be plugged into.
  • Many small-scale content creators (eg. on TikTok) buy lav mics that have the wireless transmitter built-in, all in one unit.
  • On-screen, mics often have to be taped underneath clothing, so there's lots of advice on how to do that, while still getting good audio. [2]
• There are all manner of "spy" equipment disguised as other objects, intended to record audio.Many of them are reminiscent of the technology that was available during the Soviet era.

Ethics

• I sometimes want to record audio to be used ONLY by me, and not even shared with close friends/therapists/etc. My memory isn't great, and this sometimes causes real problems.
  • In this scenario, in my mind, if I never ever share it, and delete the audio file in a few days, I feel more comfortable with the ethics of that situation.