Fireflies AI Lawsuit (2026): The Claims, Fireflies' Defense and Where the Cases Stand

Yes, Fireflies AI is being sued: Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 1:26-cv-02675, is a proposed class action in federal court in Chicago that alleges Fireflies' Notetaker captured the voiceprints of meeting participants who never signed up for it, without the consent Illinois' biometric privacy law requires, and a near copy, Parrinello v. Fireflies.AI Corp., is on hold in California. If the case makes you want a note taker that puts nothing in the call, Scribbl, which we make, takes the notes on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams with nothing joining, recordings private by default, and your meetings never used to train AI for anyone other than you.

No court has ruled that Fireflies broke the law. Fireflies denies the claims and asked the court to dismiss them on July 15, 2026; as of October 19, 2026, the judge hasn't ruled. This page covers what the lawsuit claims, what Fireflies says, the timeline, what happens next, and what people mean by the Fireflies controversy. Every fact comes from the court dockets and filings, Fireflies' own pages, and news reports, checked on October 19, 2026. Every claim against Fireflies here is an allegation that hasn't been proven. For Fireflies' privacy settings and security claims, see is Fireflies AI safe.

The Fireflies lawsuit at a glance

What the Fireflies lawsuit claims

The plaintiffs say they were recorded by Fireflies in work meetings their bosses or co-workers brought it to. The consolidated complaint alleges, and Fireflies denies, that:

• Fireflies joins and records on its own. The complaint describes Fireflies as an AI meeting assistant that "automatically joins virtual meetings" on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
• It captures everyone's voiceprint. When a host turns Fireflies on, the complaint alleges, it "records, analyzes, transcribes, and stores the voiceprints of all meeting participants," including people who never created a Fireflies account or agreed to its terms. It points to Fireflies' marketing of Speaker Recognition, which identifies different speakers, and says that necessarily means building a template of each participant's voice.
• Nobody is asked. Illinois' biometric privacy law requires written notice and a written release before a company collects a biometric identifier. The complaint says participants who don't use Fireflies never get either.
• No public retention policy. The law also requires a public written policy for keeping and destroying biometric data. The complaint says Fireflies has none.
• Disclosure to vendors. A third count alleges Fireflies shares the speaker data with third parties without consent.

The plaintiffs. Ethan Fricker says that between April and October 2025, while working for Power Kiosk and sitting in Chicago, he attended Microsoft Teams meetings that his boss's Fireflies account recorded. Lorenzo Martinez, who works for Summit HQ, says the same happened in several meetings. Neither created a Fireflies account.

Who the plaintiffs want to represent. Everyone whose speaker data Fireflies captured while they were in Illinois, or were Illinois residents, in the five years before the suit, excluding anyone who agreed to Fireflies' terms. The complaint seeks statutory damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per intentional or reckless violation, plus an injunction.

What Fireflies says

In court. Fireflies' motion to dismiss, filed July 15, 2026, says the plaintiffs' claims "are based on little more than information and belief," and asks the court to throw the case out without leave to amend. Its arguments:

1. No standing on the retention policy claim. The duty to publish a retention policy is owed to the public, not to any one person, so a missing policy isn't an injury the plaintiffs can sue over.
2. No jurisdiction in Illinois. The plaintiffs connected with Fireflies only because their co-workers chose to join meetings and chose to use Fireflies there. Another party's unilateral choices, Fireflies argues, can't give an Illinois court jurisdiction over a company.
3. Illinois law doesn't reach out of state. Fireflies argues the plaintiffs don't plausibly allege that its relevant conduct happened primarily and substantially in Illinois, so the claims are barred by Illinois' extraterritoriality doctrine and the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.
4. The disclosure count is speculation. The claim that Fireflies shared biometric data with third parties is, Fireflies says, based only on information and belief.

The plaintiffs opposed the motion on August 12, 2026, and Fireflies replied on August 26, 2026. The docket showed no ruling as of October 19, 2026.

On its own pages. Fireflies' trust center FAQ says "Fireflies does not create, store, or process voiceprints or biometric identifiers," and that its transcription vendor returns generic labels such as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2. Its privacy policy (September 28, 2026) says service providers "may extract or generate Voice Data from voice recordings" that may count as biometric identifiers or biometric information under Illinois law, that providers don't use it to identify people, and that it is destroyed within three years of your last interaction. Fireflies' terms put the job of getting every participant's consent on the account holder.

Fireflies lawsuit timeline

What happens next in the Fireflies lawsuit

The next event is the judge's ruling on the motion to dismiss. There is no date for it. If the court dismisses the case for lack of jurisdiction, the plaintiffs could appeal or refile elsewhere, and the California case would wake up: the Parrinello stay order requires a joint status report within 14 days of the Illinois ruling. If the court lets the claims go forward, discovery starts, and the parties must confer about settlement, as the court's July 8 order directs. A ruling either way wouldn't decide whether the allegations are true.

Can you join? Not yet. There's no certified class, no settlement and no claim form. If the court certifies a class, people in it are usually notified and included without signing up.

What is the Fireflies AI controversy?

People use the phrase for three different things.

1. The voiceprint lawsuits above, which are unproven allegations under one state's law.
2. The founders' "fake it till you make it" story. On November 25, 2025, Business Insider reported on a viral LinkedIn post by cofounder Sam Udotong: in 2017, he and CEO Krish Ramineni took notes by hand for more than 100 meetings while customers paid $100 a month for what they believed was an AI bot named Fred (Business Insider, via AOL). Ramineni told Business Insider that customers were told there would be some human involvement and that the manual work ended by late 2018, before the company raised from investors. Critics quoted in the story called the practice questionable; Ramineni said "You can't fake it till you make it forever." The same report says Fireflies is now valued at $1 billion.
3. The bot that shows up uninvited. The everyday complaint about Fireflies is that "Fireflies.ai Notetaker" appears in meetings nobody asked it to join. Fireflies' own help center explains why: by default it joins every calendar meeting with a web conferencing link, it records even when the account holder isn't there, and it can keep appearing after you delete your account because a colleague's account is sending it (setup guide, FAQ, troubleshooting).

Do it with Scribbl: nothing joins the call

The lawsuit is about a bot that joins meetings and records people who never agreed to anything. If that's what you want to avoid, this is where Scribbl is different:

1. Add Scribbl. For Google Meet, add the Chrome extension (AI note taker for Google Meet). For Zoom and Microsoft Teams, install Scribbl Desktop for Mac (Apple silicon) or Windows (Zoom, Teams).
2. Join the meeting as usual. Nothing joins the call, nothing appears in the participant list, and nothing turns up in meetings you didn't attend. You don't need to be the host. Tell everyone you're recording, the way you would in any meeting.
3. Open the notes when it ends. You get the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. Recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you.

The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Start free.

Are other AI note takers being sued?

Yes. These are all allegations, and none has been decided.

• Otter.ai. In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, No. 5:25-cv-06911 (N.D. Cal.), alleges Otter Notetaker recorded people without consent and used their conversations to train Otter's AI. On August 13, 2026, the judge let the federal wiretap, California privacy and Illinois biometric claims go forward; Otter denies them. See the Otter AI lawsuit.
• Granola. Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-07926 (N.D. Cal.), filed July 30, 2026, alleges that Granola's bot-free note taker captures meeting audio from the user's computer without telling other participants, and uses it to train AI by default. Granola hadn't responded on the merits as of the latest docket entries. See is Granola AI safe.

Of these, the Otter case is the furthest along.

What the lawsuit means if you're choosing a note taker

Nothing has been decided against Fireflies. But the case shows what to check in any AI note taker before your clients, candidates or colleagues end up in its recordings:

1. Does a bot join the call, and can it join without you? The Fireflies complaint turns on a Notetaker that a host enables and that records everyone in the room. Fireflies' default is to join every calendar meeting with a video link.
2. What does it keep about people's voices? Fireflies' own pages give two answers; see is Fireflies AI safe.
3. Who gets the notes? Fireflies emails the recap to everyone on the invite by default.
4. Who handles consent? You do, with every tool. Some places, including Illinois and California, require everyone's permission; see do you have to tell people you're recording. Tell everyone you're recording.

Feature	Scribbl	Fireflies
A bot in the participant list	No, on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams	Yes, Fireflies.ai Notetaker
Joins meetings from your calendar on its own	No bot to join	Yes, by default, every meeting with a video link
Recordings private by default	Yes	No: teammates and anyone with the link
Your meetings used to train AI	Not for anyone other than you	Says no
Privacy class action pending	None	Yes, Illinois biometric privacy claims

With Scribbl, nothing joins the call, recordings are private by default, and your meetings don't train AI for anyone other than you. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Pro is $13 per user per month billed annually, or $20 monthly (pricing). Start free. If you're moving off Fireflies, see Fireflies alternatives and Scribbl vs Fireflies.

FAQ

Is Fireflies AI being sued?

Yes. Fireflies.AI Corp. is the defendant in Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 1:26-cv-02675, a proposed class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that combines two suits filed in March 2026, and in Parrinello v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 3:26-cv-02479, a nearly identical case in Northern California that is on hold. As of October 19, 2026, Fireflies' motion to dismiss the Illinois case is awaiting a ruling, no class has been certified, and no court has ruled that Fireflies broke the law.

What is the Fireflies AI lawsuit about?

The consolidated complaint alleges that when a meeting host turns Fireflies on, its Notetaker records, analyzes, transcribes and stores the voiceprints of every participant, including people who never created a Fireflies account or agreed to its terms, without the written notice, consent and public retention policy that Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act requires. It brings three counts under that law. Fireflies denies the allegations.

What is the Fireflies AI controversy?

Three things get called that. The Illinois voiceprint lawsuits, which are unproven allegations. A November 2025 Business Insider story in which Fireflies' cofounders described taking notes by hand for more than 100 meetings in 2017 while customers believed an AI bot named Fred was doing it. And the everyday complaint that the Fireflies bot shows up in meetings people didn't invite it to, which Fireflies' own help center explains comes from its auto-join default and from colleagues' accounts.

Did the court rule against Fireflies?

No. As of October 19, 2026, the court hasn't ruled on Fireflies' motion to dismiss, which was fully briefed on August 26, 2026. Even a ruling that lets the case go forward would only mean the complaint states a legal claim; it wouldn't decide whether the allegations are true.

What has Fireflies said about the lawsuit?

In its July 15, 2026 motion to dismiss, Fireflies argued that the plaintiffs' claims rest on little more than information and belief, that they lack standing to sue over a missing retention policy, that an Illinois court has no jurisdiction over Fireflies because the plaintiffs' co-workers, not Fireflies, chose to use it in Illinois, and that Illinois law doesn't reach conduct that happened outside the state. Its trust center says Fireflies does not create, store or process voiceprints or biometric identifiers.

Is the Fireflies lawsuit a class action?

It's a proposed class action. The plaintiffs ask the court to certify a class of everyone whose speaker data Fireflies captured while they were in Illinois or were Illinois residents in the five years before the suit, excluding people who agreed to Fireflies' terms. No class has been certified, and the court hasn't set a schedule for that decision.

Can I join the Fireflies class action?

Not yet. There is no certified class, no settlement and no claim form as of October 19, 2026. If a class is certified, people in it are usually notified and don't need to sign up. The court appointed Werman Salas P.C. as interim class counsel for the plaintiffs on June 4, 2026.

What happened to the earlier Fireflies lawsuit?

Cruz v. Fireflies.AI Corp., filed in federal court in central Illinois on December 18, 2025, made the same voiceprint allegations. The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed it on March 11, 2026, the day after Fricker was filed in Chicago.

Are other AI note takers being sued?

Yes. Otter.ai is defending In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation in federal court in California, where a judge let wiretap, privacy and biometric claims go forward on August 13, 2026, and Granola faces Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc., filed July 30, 2026 in the same court, over its bot-free capture and AI training defaults. All of these are allegations, and none has been decided.

Will people see anything join the call if I use Scribbl?

No. Scribbl, which we make, takes notes in Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams with nothing joining the call, so no bot sits in the participant list and nothing turns up in meetings you didn't attend. You still get the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. Recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Start free at extension.app.scribbl.co/signup.

Sources

Every fact above was checked on these pages on October 19, 2026.

• Court dockets: Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 1:26-cv-02675 (N.D. Ill.), via CourtListener (last filing shown: August 26, 2026); Parrinello v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 3:26-cv-02479 (N.D. Cal.) (last filing shown: July 15, 2026); Cruz v. Fireflies.AI Corp. (C.D. Ill.), via the Justia docket and Data Privacy + Cybersecurity Insider (December 24, 2025)
• Court filings: Consolidated Class Action Complaint (June 24, 2026); Fireflies' motion to dismiss (July 15, 2026); order consolidating the cases (June 4, 2026); Parrinello stay order (April 24, 2026)
• Other note taker cases: In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, No. 5:25-cv-06911 (N.D. Cal.); Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-07926 (N.D. Cal.)
• News: Business Insider, via AOL, An AI startup's viral LinkedIn story and the 'fake it till you make it' approach (November 25, 2025); Top Class Actions, Fireflies.AI sued over alleged unlawful data collection from meeting participants (March 19, 2026)
• Fireflies: privacy policy (September 28, 2026), terms of service (September 28, 2026), trust center FAQ, Setting up Fireflies before a meeting (October 19, 2026), How Fireflies joins and records your meetings, Fireflies joins meetings after account deletion
• Scribbl: pricing