AI hiring laws: what Simplehire does today

• Your team makes every hiring decision. Simplehire's screen gives a verdict and the evidence behind it; it does not hire or reject anyone on its own.
• We have not had an independent bias audit yet. We don't describe Simplehire as audited, bias-free or compliant with any law on your behalf.
• The optional ID check uses face matching, which is biometric data. Candidates sign a written consent first, and the ID, selfie and face data are deleted from our systems when the check completes.
• The AI that assesses answers reads a transcript of what the candidate said. It never receives their photo, video or voice recording.

You do. The verdict on each screening report is an automated label based on the interview. It is not a hiring decision, and Simplehire does not review or take part in yours. Section 4.1 of our Terms and section 2.3 of our customer agreement say this in full.

What the law asks. If you use an automated employment decision tool for jobs in New York City, Local Law 144 requires an independent bias audit within one year before use, a public summary of its results, and a notice to candidates at least 10 business days before use. The law puts these duties on the employer or employment agency that uses the tool (NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection).

• No independent audit yet. Simplehire has not commissioned an independent bias audit, so we can't give you an audit summary today. We intend to commission one, and we will publish its summary on this page when we do.
• If you hire for New York City roles. Plan your own audit before using Simplehire for those roles. Our Terms and customer agreement list it as the employer's duty.
• A ready-made candidate notice. Your account owner can switch on a New York City notice in company settings. Once it is on, it is added to every interview invitation. It tells candidates that an automated tool is used, that the tool does not assess their appearance, voice or accent, and how to ask you for an accommodation or another selection process. It stays off until you switch it on, and sending it at least 10 business days before use is up to you.

• It is optional. For each invitation, the recruiter sets the ID check to Off, Optional or Required.
• What it does. It compares the face in a live photo taken during the check with the photo on the candidate's government ID. That comparison uses face geometry, which is biometric data under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and similar state laws.
• Written consent first. Before the check, the candidate sees a notice titled "Identity Verification — Biometric Consent Required" and signs a written release with their name and the date. It names the face-geometry scan, its one-time purpose and when the data is deleted. We record when they consented and which version of the notice they saw.
• Who processes it. Amazon Web Services (Amazon Rekognition) does the face comparison. To read the text on the ID, the ID image is also processed by OpenAI, with Google Cloud Vision as a backup. These providers process the images only to run the check, not to train AI models.
• Deleted when the check completes. The ID images, the selfie and any face-geometry data are deleted when the check completes, usually within minutes, and are never written to our databases or file storage. We keep only whether the check was completed. A provider may keep a copy for a limited period under its own retention terms, as our Privacy Policy explains.
• Never sold or reused. We do not sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from biometric data, and we use it only for the one check the candidate consented to.
• Public retention schedule. Our retention and destruction schedule for biometric data is in section 7 of our Privacy Policy.

• Answers only. The AI that produces the verdict reads a transcript of the candidate's answers, together with the role's requirements. It never receives the candidate's photo, video or voice recording, and the candidate's name is hidden from it.
• Health and disability left out. If a candidate mentions a disability, a health condition or an accommodation, those sentences are removed before the answers are assessed, on every tier.
• Alerts stay alerts. Proctoring and integrity alerts are shown to you separately. They do not change the verdict.
• A record for every interview. Each interview records the version of the instructions and rating guide used to assess it.
• Speech-to-text can mishear. The transcript is produced automatically and can mishear words, especially technical terms and some accents. We are testing how this affects results, and we do not publish accuracy figures.

• Told about the AI. Every invitation says the interview is run by AI and links to a page where the candidate can ask you for a human review, an explanation or an alternative to the AI interview.
• Accommodations. Before the interview, a candidate can ask you for an accommodation, such as a typed interview instead of a spoken one, extra time, captions or written questions, or breaks. The request goes to you, not to the AI interviewer, and is not part of the screening. You decide how to respond.
• Deletion. Candidates can ask for their data to be deleted by writing to privacy@simplehire.ai. We act within 30 days, unless the employer tells us the law requires keeping it.

• Interview audio. 30 days.
• Proctoring alert screenshots. Up to 90 days, so you can review the alert. They can show the candidate's face.
• Transcripts and assessments. For as long as the employer's retention setting says: one year by default.
• AI training. Our third-party AI providers do not train on candidate data. We keep transcripts and assessments to run the service, handle disputes and improve how we assess interviews.

The law places these duties on you as the employer or employment agency, where they apply. Section 4 of our Terms and section 5.2 of our customer agreement set them out.

• Equal-employment and anti-discrimination law, including Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Bias audits and candidate notices under New York City Local Law 144.
• The Illinois Human Rights Act, Colorado's automated-decision law from January 1, 2027, and California's automated-decision regulations.
• Answering requests for an accommodation or an alternative, adverse-action and rejection notices, and keeping hiring records.

For a plain-English overview, see our guide to US AI hiring laws. This page is general information, not legal advice.