Employer guideRead at source, 9 September 2026
Video Interviews: the Rules That Attach the Moment You Record
A video interview is two different tools wearing one name. A live one is a phone screen with faces — barely regulated, and useful mainly for saving travel. A one-way or asynchronous one, where the candidate records answers for you to watch later, is a different thing entirely: it moves work onto the applicant, and if anything analyses the recording it triggers obligations in at least three US jurisdictions. Illinois requires notice, an explanation and consent before the interview, plus deletion within 30 days of a request. Maryland requires a signed waiver before any facial recognition. New York City requires a bias audit within one year and 10 business days' notice to candidates. None of that depends on where your company is; it depends on where the candidate is.
Two formats, two entirely different decisions
A live video interview replaces a room. It costs a scheduled slot on both sides, it does not scale, and it is a fair substitute for a first in-person meeting when the candidate would otherwise drive an hour. Nothing about it is unusual, and the main thing to get right is the same thing that makes any interview work: a consistent set of questions asked of every candidate.
A one-way video interview replaces a recruiter's time with the candidate's time. You send prompts, they record answers when convenient, somebody watches later at double speed. That is a genuine efficiency for the employer, and it is a genuine cost imposed on the applicant — which matters more the more of them you need. It also has a property live interviews do not: it produces a durable recording that can be stored, shared and analysed, and that is where the law enters.
Three jurisdictions with rules that most employers have never read
| Where | What triggers it | What you must do |
|---|---|---|
| Illinois — Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, 820 ILCS 42 | Asking an applicant to record a video interview for a position based in Illinois and using AI to evaluate it | Notify before the interview that AI may be used; explain how it works and what characteristics it uses; obtain consent before the interview; limit sharing; delete within 30 days of a request |
| Maryland — Labor & Employment § 3-717 | Using a facial recognition service to create a facial template during an interview | Obtain a signed consent waiver first, containing the applicant's name, the interview date, the consent itself, and whether the applicant read it |
| New York City — Local Law 144 of 2021 | Using an automated employment decision tool to screen candidates for a position in NYC | Bias audit within one year of use; publish a summary of the results; notify candidates 10 business days before use |
Read the trigger column rather than the jurisdiction column. None of these is a rule about where your company is incorporated; each attaches to a candidate or a position. A senior living group headquartered in Ohio that advertises a Chicago-area role and screens the recordings with a scoring tool is inside the Illinois act.
Illinois: three duties before, and one after
Section 5 of the Illinois act is a sequence, and all of it happens before the recording. The employer must notify each applicant, before the interview, that artificial intelligence may be used to evaluate it. The employer must provide an explanation of how the artificial intelligence works and what general types of characteristics it uses to evaluate applicants. And the employer must obtain consent, before the interview, to be evaluated that way. There is no cure available afterwards; a consent collected on the way out is not consent under section 5.
Section 10 limits distribution: an employer may not share applicant videos except with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to evaluate an applicant's fitness for a position. Section 15 is the one to build into a process, because it has a clock: on an applicant's request, the employer must delete the interviews and instruct anyone else who received a copy to do the same, within 30 days after receiving the request. If your vendor holds the recordings, that is a contractual question you want answered before you sign, not after the first request arrives.
The clause that catches high-volume employers
Section 20 applies to an employer that relies solely upon an artificial intelligence analysis of a video interview to decide whether an applicant will get an in-person interview. That employer must collect and report the race and ethnicity of applicants who are and are not offered an in-person interview, and of those hired, to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity by 31 December each year, which analyses the data for racial bias. Sections 1, 5, 10 and 15 took effect on 1 January 2020; section 20 on 1 January 2022. If a human reviews every recording before the invite decision, the reporting duty does not attach — which makes "does a person actually watch these" a compliance question as well as a quality one.
Maryland and New York City, briefly
Maryland's rule is narrower and simpler. An employer may not use a facial recognition service to create a facial template during an applicant's interview unless the applicant consents, and the statute prescribes what the waiver contains in plain language: the applicant's name, the date of the interview, that the applicant consents to the use of facial recognition during the interview, and whether the applicant read the consent waiver. Four items, signed, before the technology runs.
New York City's Local Law 144 is not a video rule at all — it is an automated-tool rule that a scored video interview walks into. Where an automated employment decision tool is used to screen candidates, it must have been subject to a bias audit within one year of use, a summary of the audit results must be published, and candidates must receive notice 10 business days before the tool is used. Enforcement by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection began on 5 July 2023.
What an extra step costs, in the only terms we can measure
We do not measure how many candidates finish a one-way video interview, and we are not going to publish a figure we did not collect. What we do measure is what happens one step earlier, and it is a useful floor for the argument.
Across the 891 Boostpoint-managed Meta campaigns in our 2026 benchmark, 11% of the people who clicked a registered nurse ad completed an application, against 31% for caregiver roles. The pattern holds across every sector we measure: the higher the credential, the lower the completion. A one-way video interview is another completion event stacked on top of that one, and its arithmetic is unforgiving — if you paid $19.08 for an RN applicant and three-quarters of the ones you invite finish the video, your cost per finished candidate is $25.44, not $19.08.
Where the step actually belongs
Three placements, in descending order of how often they work.
- After a human has decided the candidate is qualified. Here the video replaces a scheduled screen with a recruiter, and the candidate has a reason to complete it. The cost falls on the smaller number.
- As an optional alternative to a phone screen. Offering both and letting the candidate choose costs nothing and removes the friction argument entirely.
- As a knockout step before any human contact. This is the placement that looks most efficient on a slide and performs worst in a high-turnover frontline funnel, because the people most able to walk away are the ones with other offers. If you do it here, keep it to two questions and say how long it takes.
Whatever the placement, the questions should be the same for every candidate and written down — which is the same discipline that makes any structured interview defensible. The broader sequence is in our hiring process steps guide, and the screening questions that usually belong before a video step are in pre-screening questions.
Check what applies to you
Answer for the role you are actually hiring. This applies the three statutes as published; it is a reading aid rather than legal advice, and it does not cover state biometric privacy laws that may apply on top.
Which obligations attach?
Frequently asked questions
What is a one-way video interview?
An asynchronous interview in which the employer sends written or recorded prompts and the candidate records their answers at a time of their choosing, for a recruiter to review later. It differs from a live video interview in that it produces a stored recording, requires no scheduled slot from the employer, and moves the time cost onto the applicant. The stored recording is also what brings it within several state and city laws that a live conversation does not touch.
Do you have to tell candidates that AI is analysing their video interview?
In Illinois, yes, and before the interview. The Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act requires an employer to notify each applicant before the interview that artificial intelligence may be used to evaluate it, to provide an explanation of how the AI works and what general types of characteristics it uses, and to obtain the applicant's consent before the interview. New York City separately requires 10 business days' notice before an automated employment decision tool is used on a candidate for a position in the city.
How long can an employer keep a recorded video interview?
Under the Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act there is no fixed retention limit, but an applicant may request deletion, and on receiving that request the employer must delete the applicant's interviews and instruct anyone else who received copies to do the same within 30 days. Employers may also not share applicant videos except with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to evaluate the applicant's fitness for the position.
Does Maryland require consent for facial recognition in interviews?
Yes. Under Maryland Labor and Employment section 3-717, an employer may not use a facial recognition service to create a facial template during an applicant's interview unless the applicant consents by signing a waiver. The waiver must state, in plain language, the applicant's name, the date of the interview, that the applicant consents to the use of facial recognition during the interview, and whether the applicant read the consent waiver.
Does New York City's bias audit law apply to video interviews?
It applies where an automated employment decision tool is used to screen candidates for a position in New York City, which includes a tool that scores or ranks recorded video interviews. The employer must ensure the tool has been subject to a bias audit within one year of use, make information about the audit publicly available with a summary of the results posted, and give candidates notice 10 business days before the tool is used. Enforcement began on 5 July 2023.
Do one-way video interviews reduce applicant volume?
Any additional completion event reduces the number of candidates who reach the end of a funnel; the question is by how much and where the step sits. We do not measure video-interview completion rates and do not publish a figure for them. What we do measure is application completion by role family: 31% of people who click a caregiver ad complete an application against 11% for registered nurse roles, so the higher the credential, the more a stacked step costs. Placing the video after a human has qualified the candidate limits the loss to a smaller group.
Every step you add is paid for at the top of the funnel.
We buy the attention that starts your process, on Facebook and Instagram, and report what each applicant costs with the management fee inside it. What you ask them to do next is where that money is kept or lost.
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