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Aethel

Trust center

AI hiring laws

Last updated: October 2026

Laws on AI in hiring give candidates rights and give employers duties. This page says what Aethel does to support those laws today, what the hiring company remains responsible for, and what Aethel does not have.

The short version

  • Aethel is built to support notice, consent, accommodations, deletion, and human decisions. Each feature is listed below with where you can see it.
  • Aethel has no independent bias audit, no SOC 2 report, and no certification under any AI law. Nothing on this page means that Aethel, or a company using it, complies with a law.
  • Most duties toward candidates, such as notices, bias audits, and offering another way to be assessed, belong to the company that hires.
  • Aethel never reads emotions. Aethel never uses face recognition, face analysis, or voice identification. It does not record video or audio.

This is a plain summary, not legal advice. Check with your lawyer. Laws and dates checked on October 12, 2026.

What Aethel does for every interview

These are features you can see and use today. Each one supports duties that several of the laws below share.

  • Says the interviewer is an AI

    What it does
    The consent screen says so before the interview, the room labels it "AI interviewer" throughout, and the interviewer says it is an AI, not a person, whenever asked.
    Where to see it
    The interviewer

  • Explains the AI before consent

    What it does
    Before every saved interview: what the AI scores, with the four areas for the field named, what it never looks at, who decides, how to ask for another way to be assessed, and how to delete.
    Where to see it
    How the AI works

  • Records consent

    What it does
    The interview starts only after the candidate agrees. Aethel saves a dated record of the consent version, the version of the explanation shown, the providers named, and, for a company link, the company and what it will see.

  • Scores the words only

    What it does
    The scoring step receives only the written transcript and the field. Every score must quote the candidate's own words, or the area says "not enough evidence".
    Where to see it
    The evidence rule

  • No face, voice, or emotion analysis

    What it does
    The camera preview never leaves the device, and the live room cannot send video. Audio is used only to write down answers and to tell when someone has finished speaking. Nothing infers emotions, and no speaker identification is turned on. Aethel does not record video or audio.
    Where to see it
    What is never scored

  • People decide

    What it does
    Aethel never rejects or advances anyone. A company sets each decision by hand, and its candidate list is in date order, not score order.
    Where to see it
    The human decision

  • Accommodations

    What it does
    Typing every answer and skipping the camera and microphone work for everyone. In the live room, candidates choose more time per answer, more time overall, type only, or larger captions on the consent screen, without asking anyone or sharing a diagnosis.
    Where to see it
    Ask for accommodations

  • Another way to be assessed

    What it does
    Each interview link can show the company's own contact for accommodations or another way to be assessed. Candidates can also write to Aethel through the support form.
    Where to see it
    The support form

  • Deletion

    What it does
    Candidates delete one attempt, or everything, from their account at once. Requests by email or the support form are done within 30 days, tracked on a 30-day clock in Aethel's staff inbox. A company can remove one candidate's result from its account itself.
    Where to see it
    What gets deleted

  • Limited sharing

    What it does
    A company sees an interview only from its own link, or when the candidate shares a recent one there. Anyone else needs a share link or code the candidate makes.
    Where to see it
    Who sees results

  • Retention

    What it does
    Interview records are deleted 24 months after the interview by a scheduled policy, or sooner if the candidate deletes them.
    Where to see it
    How long we keep data

  • Notice text for companies

    What it does
    Companies get notice text for each role, with the four scored areas named, and a law-by-law summary of their duties.
    Where to see it
    For companies

Law by law

For each law: when it applies, whether it is in force, what Aethel does to support it, what the hiring company remains responsible for, and what Aethel does not have. Companies get the same summary, with notice text they can send candidates, on For companies.

New York City Local Law 144

You hire or promote for a job in New York City and a tool's scores substantially help decide who moves forward.

In force: Yes. Enforced since July 5, 2023. The law and its rules have not changed since.

What Aethel does to support it

  • The candidate notice text for each role names the four job-related areas the AI scores, the data it uses, and how long it is kept.
  • Each interview link can show your own contact for an accommodation or another selection process on the invite page.
  • The data type, source, and retention facts are in "Data facts for your notices" on this page.
  • Aethel is designed so your team decides: no automatic rejection or advancement, the quotes behind every score, and a candidate list in date order, not score order.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Decide with your lawyer whether your use makes Aethel an "automated employment decision tool". Under the city's rules it does if you rely only on the scores, weigh them more than any other factor, or use them to overrule other judgments, including your team's.
  • If it does: before you use it, have an independent bias audit done within the past year, post a summary of the results on your website, and keep it posted for at least 6 months after you last use the tool.
  • Tell candidates who live in New York City at least 10 business days before: that the tool will be used, the job qualifications and characteristics it assesses, and how to ask for another selection process or an accommodation.
  • Post on your website, or send within 30 days of a written request, the type and source of the data the tool uses and how long it is kept.
  • Fines run from $500 to $1,500 per violation, and each day of use can count as a separate violation.

What Aethel does not have

  • No independent bias audit. If your use counts, the law asks for one before you use Aethel for New York City roles.
  • Aethel collects no demographic data, so there is no data by sex or race for an audit today.
  • Aethel does not send the 10 business day notice for you.

Official text: Local Law 144 of 2021, the city's rules, the city's guidance page.

Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act

You ask applicants for Illinois-based jobs to record video interviews, and AI analyzes the videos.

In force: Yes, since January 1, 2020. The race and ethnicity reporting part since January 1, 2022.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Before every interview, the consent screen explains how the AI works, names the four areas it scores, and says what it never looks at.
  • The interview starts only after the candidate agrees, and Aethel keeps a dated record of that consent and of the explanation shown.
  • A company sees an interview only from its own link. Aethel shares it with no one else unless the candidate makes a share link or code.
  • A candidate can delete in Aethel at once. Requests by email are done within 30 days. A company can remove one candidate's result from its account itself, at once.
  • Aethel never decides who gets an in-person interview.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Before the interview: tell the applicant AI may be used to analyze it, explain how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses, and get their consent.
  • Share interviews only with people whose expertise or technology is needed to evaluate the applicant.
  • If the applicant asks, delete the interview within 30 days, and tell everyone who got a copy to delete it too, including backups.
  • If AI alone decides who gets an in-person interview, report race and ethnicity data to the state each year.

What Aethel does not have

  • Copies a company downloaded, or received in its own systems, are outside Aethel's reach. The company deletes those itself.
  • When a company removes a result, the candidate's own copy in their Aethel account stays theirs. The candidate can delete it at any time.
  • A lawyer has not yet confirmed whether this Act covers a live interview that is not recorded and is scored from the transcript.

Official text: 820 ILCS 42.

Illinois Human Rights Act (the AI amendment, HB 3773)

You have employees in Illinois and use AI in recruiting, hiring, or other job decisions.

In force: Yes, since January 1, 2026. Detailed notice rules were proposed in May 2026 and withdrawn in June 2026, so there is no official notice format yet.

What Aethel does to support it

  • The candidate notice text names Aethel, the role, what the AI evaluates, the data it uses, your contact, and how to ask for an accommodation.
  • The scorer receives only the transcript and the field. It never uses location, zip code, name, or demographic data.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Give notice when you use AI in recruiting or hiring decisions.
  • Do not use AI in a way that has a discriminatory effect on people in protected classes, and do not use zip codes as a stand-in for a protected class.
  • The withdrawn rules suggested what a notice should name: the product and who makes it, the decision it affects, its purpose, the data it uses, the positions, a contact, and the right to ask for a reasonable accommodation.

What Aethel does not have

  • No test of results across groups of real candidates.
  • Aethel's own internal tests on made-up interviews, which are not an audit, found that non-native English grammar lowered the scores of strong and average answers by about 2 points out of 100 with earlier scoring; with the scoring used now, answers with non-native grammar scored within about 1 point of the same answers in fluent English.

Official text: 775 ILCS 5/2-102.

Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA)

A tool collects voiceprints, scans of face geometry, or other biometric identifiers from people in Illinois.

In force: Yes, since 2008. Changed in August 2024 so that repeated collection from one person counts once, and an electronic signature counts as a written release.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Aethel does not collect biometric identifiers. Aethel never uses face recognition, face analysis, or voice identification.
  • The camera preview stays on the candidate's device. The live room cannot send video, so no face image reaches Aethel or its providers.
  • Spoken answers stream to speech to text and are written down. Aethel does not record or keep audio, and no speaker identification is turned on.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • If any tool in your hiring collects biometric identifiers: publish a retention and destruction policy, tell people in writing what is collected, why, and for how long, get a written release first, never sell or profit from it, and protect it.
  • People can sue: $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional or reckless one.

What Aethel does not have

  • A lawyer has not yet confirmed that streaming audio to the speech-to-text provider creates no voiceprint there. What each provider receives and keeps is on the subprocessors page.

Official text: 740 ILCS 14.

Maryland: facial recognition in job interviews

You interview applicants for jobs, and a facial recognition service could create a facial template during the interview.

In force: Yes, since October 1, 2020.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Aethel never uses facial recognition or face analysis, and never receives the candidate's camera video, so no facial template is made.
  • The consent screen and the notice text you send say so plainly.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Do not use facial recognition to create a facial template during an interview unless the applicant signs a plain-language waiver with their name, the interview date, their consent, and whether they read the waiver.

Official text: Labor and Employment section 3-717.

Americans with Disabilities Act (United States)

You have 15 or more employees and use any test or tool to screen applicants.

In force: Yes. The EEOC took down its 2022 guidance on AI and the ADA in early 2025, but the law itself applies, and the Justice Department's 2022 guidance on AI in hiring is still online.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Built in for everyone: type every answer, no camera or microphone needed, and no timer on each answer.
  • In the live room, candidates choose more time per answer, more time overall, type only, or larger captions on the consent screen, without asking anyone or sharing a diagnosis. Companies never see the choice, and the scorer never receives it.
  • Your interview link can show your own contact for accommodations or another way to be assessed.
  • Scores come from the words of answers only, never voice, speaking speed, or how long an answer takes.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Give reasonable accommodations to applicants who need them, including for an AI interview, unless that causes undue hardship.
  • Do not use a test that screens out people with disabilities unless it is job-related and consistent with business necessity.
  • Give tests in a way that measures the skill, not a disability, such as impaired speaking.
  • Tell candidates how to ask for an accommodation, and offer another way to be assessed when the AI interview does not work for someone.

What Aethel does not have

  • Aethel has not measured whether scores differ for people with disabilities in real interviews. Its internal test on made-up interviews found no measurable difference from a stated disability.
  • Aethel cannot offer the other way to be assessed for you. That is part of your process.

Official text: 42 U.S.C. 12112, Justice Department guidance.

Colorado automated decision law (SB 26-189, which replaced the Colorado AI Act)

A tool's scores materially influence a hiring decision about someone in Colorado.

In force: Not yet. In May 2026 Colorado replaced its AI Act with a narrower law that starts January 1, 2027. In a pending federal case the state agreed not to enforce it until after the court rules, and the state's rules are still being written. A separate Colorado chatbot law, also from January 1, 2027, asks for a clear AI disclosure, which Aethel already gives.

What Aethel does to support it

  • This page's "Using Aethel's scores responsibly" section covers what the tool is for, what it is not for, known limits, the data it uses, and how to review results.
  • Every result shows the quotes behind each score, which helps you explain the tool's role in a decision.
  • Candidates can correct their profile and ask for a review of how an interview was scored.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • From January 1, 2027: give a clear notice before you use the tool, in a form people with disabilities and limited English can use.
  • Within 30 days after an adverse decision, explain the decision and the tool's role in plain words, and how to ask for more detail.
  • On request, let the person correct wrong data, and offer review and reconsideration by a person where reasonable.
  • Keep records for 3 years after each decision.

What Aethel does not have

  • Formal developer documentation, with version notes and direct notice to each company of important changes, is not written yet.
  • Aethel deletes interview records after 24 months. Download what you must keep for 3 years.

Official text: SB 26-189, the Attorney General's rulemaking.

California: civil rights rules on automated decisions, and the CCPA

You hire in California.

In force: Civil Rights Council rules: yes, since October 1, 2025. CCPA privacy rights cover job applicants since January 1, 2023, for businesses the CCPA covers. CCPA rules on automated decisions: from January 1, 2027.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Results are built for people to review: the quotes behind every score, "not enough evidence" instead of guesses, and no automatic decisions.
  • Candidates can see, download, correct, and delete their data themselves, and requests by email are done within 30 days, inside the CCPA's 45 days.
  • Aethel does not sell or share personal information and uses no advertising trackers.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Do not use an automated decision system in a way that discriminates. A tool that helps people decide counts. Testing for bias, and acting on what you find, helps your defense.
  • Keep employment records, including automated decision data, for 4 years.
  • If the CCPA covers you: tell applicants when you collect their data what you collect, why, and for how long, answer requests to know, delete, or correct within 45 days, and have a service provider contract with each vendor.
  • From January 1, 2027, if a tool makes or substantially replaces a hiring decision: give a notice before use, offer an opt-out or an appeal to a person, and answer access requests. A tool does not count when a trained person reviews its output and has the authority to decide.
  • Using AI to judge an applicant's ability from live audio may also call for a CCPA risk assessment, due by December 31, 2027 for processing already under way.

What Aethel does not have

  • No independent bias audit. Aethel's own internal tests on made-up interviews, which are not an audit, found that non-native English grammar lowered the scores of strong and average answers by about 2 points out of 100 with earlier scoring; with the scoring used now, answers with non-native grammar scored within about 1 point of the same answers in fluent English.
  • No standard service provider contract yet. Ask us.
  • Aethel deletes interview records after 24 months. Download what you must keep for 4 years.

Official text: Civil Rights Council rules, CCPA regulations, CCPA.

Connecticut AI law (Public Act 26-15)

You use an automated tool in hiring decisions about people in Connecticut.

In force: Not yet. Its duties start for tools used on or after October 1, 2027.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Candidates are told they are talking to an AI before and during the interview.
  • The candidate notice text covers the purpose, the tool's name, the data and how it is scored, where the data comes from, and your contact.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Tell applicants in plain words when they are dealing with an AI, unless it is obvious.
  • Before the decision, give written notice of the purpose, the tool's name, the data it uses and how, where the data comes from, and a contact.

What Aethel does not have

  • The formal information developers must give companies is not written yet. It is due before October 1, 2027.

Official text: Public Act 26-15.

EU AI Act

You use Aethel to evaluate candidates for jobs in the European Union.

In force: In part. The ban on reading emotions in hiring applies since February 2, 2025, and the duty to tell people they are dealing with an AI since August 2, 2026. The rules for high-risk hiring AI, which cover tools that score candidates' answers, apply from December 2, 2027.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Candidates are told the interviewer is an AI before the first question, the room labels it "AI interviewer" throughout, and it says it is an AI whenever asked. The consent screen says it looks and sounds like a person but is an AI.
  • Nothing in Aethel reads emotions, and no AI judges faces, voices, or video.
  • Results are designed for human oversight: the quotes behind every score, "not enough evidence" instead of guesses, and people set every decision.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Do not use a tool that reads emotions from a candidate's face, voice, or body. The ban covers hiring.
  • Never present the AI interviewer as a real person. The provider must tell candidates they are dealing with an AI.
  • From December 2, 2027: use the tool as its provider instructs, have trained people oversee it and question its scores, keep the logs it creates, tell workers' representatives before you use it at work, and tell candidates it is used to make decisions about them.

What Aethel does not have

  • Aethel has not yet done what the Act asks of a provider of high-risk hiring AI: a risk management system, technical documentation, logs for companies, a quality system, a conformity assessment, EU registration, and an EU representative. These are due by December 2, 2027.
  • Talk to us before you use Aethel for roles in the EU.

Official text: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, its 2026 amendment, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.

GDPR (European Union) and UK GDPR

Your candidates are in the European Union or the United Kingdom.

In force: Yes. The EU GDPR since May 25, 2018. In the UK, new rules on automated decisions apply since February 5, 2026.

What Aethel does to support it

  • Aethel makes no decision. Your team sets each decision by hand and sees the quotes behind every score.
  • The consent screen and aethel.pro/trust/ai explain the logic in plain words: what is scored, from what, and how.
  • Candidates can see, download, correct, and delete their data themselves. Requests by email are done within 30 days.

What the hiring company remains responsible for

  • Candidates have the right not to be subject to a decision based only on automated processing that significantly affects them. Have people make each decision with real review. The EU's top court has held that a score can count as the decision when the decision maker relies on it heavily.
  • Before you collect their data, tell candidates that an AI scores the interview, the logic it uses, and what it means for them.
  • Answer requests to see or delete data within one month.
  • Have a lawful basis, a data processing agreement with Aethel, and a lawful way to send data to the United States, where Aethel stores it.

What Aethel does not have

  • No standard data processing agreement yet, and no representative in the EU or the UK.
  • Data is stored in the United States, and Aethel has not yet set out a transfer mechanism for EU or UK data. Ask us before you use Aethel for candidates there.

Official text: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, UK Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 80.

Data facts for your notices

Some laws ask employers to tell candidates what data a tool uses, where it comes from, and how long it is kept. For Aethel:

  • What data the AI scores

    Answer
    The written transcript of the interview: the questions and the candidate's answers, typed, or spoken and turned into text. The scorer also knows the field of the role.

  • What the AI interviewer uses to ask questions

    Answer
    The details the candidate confirmed when applying, such as field, skills, and most recent role, and, for a company link, the role and any questions the company added.

  • What it never uses

    Answer
    Your face, video, voice, tone, accent, or how fast you answer; location or zip code; age, gender, race, or other demographic data, which Aethel does not collect. Aethel never uses face recognition, face analysis, or voice identification.

  • Where the data comes from

    Answer
    The candidate, when applying and during the interview.

  • How long Aethel keeps it

    Answer
    Up to 24 months after the interview, or until the candidate deletes it. Copies a company downloads are kept under the company's own policy.

  • Who processes it

    Answer
    The service providers on the subprocessors page, each with what it receives and how long it keeps it.

Using Aethel's scores responsibly

What Aethel's results are for, where they fall short, and how to review them. Share this with the people on your team who read results.

What it is for

  • A structured first look at how a candidate explains their own work, from an interview of about 15 minutes, read by people alongside the rest of your process.
  • Four job-related areas per field, each scored only when the candidate's own words give evidence for it.

What it is not for

  • Deciding on its own who is rejected or moves forward.
  • Judging personality, emotions, honesty, appearance, or culture fit.
  • Roles that need an interview in a language other than English.

Known limits

  • Interviews and scoring work in English only.
  • Aethel's own internal tests on made-up interviews, which are not an audit, found that non-native English grammar lowered the scores of strong and average answers by about 2 points out of 100 with earlier scoring; with the scoring used now, answers with non-native grammar scored within about 1 point of the same answers in fluent English.
  • Speech recognition can get words wrong, especially with background noise, some accents, or technical terms.
  • The same answers scored twice can get somewhat different numbers.
  • Results describe what a candidate said in one interview of about 15 minutes. Aethel has not tested whether they predict job performance.

How to review results

  • Read the quotes behind each score, not only the number. Ask whether the quotes support it.
  • "Not enough evidence" means the interview did not cover that area. It is not a low score.
  • Do not cut candidates by score alone, weigh the score above everything else, or let it overrule your team. Under New York City's rules, any of those can make Aethel an automated employment decision tool for you.
  • People tend to trust a number more than they should. Keep someone with the authority to decide reviewing each result, and record why you decided.

What Aethel does not have

  • No independent bias audit has been done. Aethel ran its own internal test, which is not an audit: 798 scorings of made-up candidates, each version changing one thing that should not matter. A name, a stated disability, a hint about age, and speech-to-text mistakes made no difference we could measure. Non-native English grammar did: strong and average answers written with non-native grammar scored about 2 points lower out of 100 than the same answers in fluent English, and a later test found up to 7 points in some fields. We changed the scoring so the ratings are made on answers copy-edited into standard English. A second internal test of the scoring we use now, on 64 made-up interviews in 8 fields, each scored 3 times, found answers with non-native grammar within about 1 point of the same answers in fluent English in every field, and 0 points apart on average. The tests used made-up interviews, so they do not measure outcomes for real applicants. Aethel has no SOC 2 report and no certification under any AI law.
  • Aethel does not collect race, gender, age, or other demographic data, so it cannot report results by group.
  • Aethel does not send notices to your candidates for you. You send the notice and the link.
  • Interview records are deleted after 24 months. If a law asks you to keep hiring records longer, download them.
  • Aethel has no standard data processing agreement or service provider contract yet, and no representative in the European Union or the United Kingdom.
  • Aethel has not yet written the formal documentation that Colorado's and Connecticut's coming laws ask developers to give employers, or taken the steps the EU AI Act asks of providers of high-risk hiring AI.

If you are a candidate

Questions from companies or lawyers

If you need something this page does not cover, such as a data processing agreement, email support@aethel.pro and tell us where you hire. We will say plainly what we have and what we do not.