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When a respondent asks you to stop recording

Started by Rhoda Nakhosi Sep 16, 2026 1 replies 👁 2 views
Rhoda Nakhosi Admin Community Champion (1,500+ points) Community Champion
Sep 16, 2026 at 7:47 pm

Mid-interview, a respondent asks you to turn off the recorder or put down the tablet, then continues speaking. What they say next may be the most important thing you hear all day and it is not captured. Do you honor the request and lose the data, or do you note afterward what you remember? I want to hear how enumerators handle the gap between consent, trust, and the record, because I do not think our protocols address it well.

Fortunate Member Thought Leader (400+ points) Thought Leader
2 weeks ago

I would honour the respondent’s request to stop recording. Once consent to recording is withdrawn, protecting the respondent’s trust and autonomy should take priority over preserving the data. However, I would immediately make a brief field note that the respondent requested the recording to stop, and, where ethically permitted, document the key points afterwards without presenting my memory as a verbatim account.