The AI transcript captured something you can't use, like health, pregnancy or pay history: what to do
On this page
- Why is an AI transcript different from your own notes?
- What should you do right after the interview?
- What does the law say about each kind of information?
- Should you delete it or keep it?
- Who should be able to open the transcript?
- How do you stop the summary from surfacing it next time?
- What if you are an agency recruiter?
- Questions people ask
When an AI transcript captures something you cannot use, such as a candidate's health condition, pregnancy, family medical history or pay history, keep it out of everything you create from the transcript (the scorecard, the AI summary, the submittal), do not ask about it, and restrict who can open the transcript. Do not delete the original if your retention rules require keeping it: US hiring records generally must be kept for a year. The EEOC says the ADA's confidentiality duty covers medical information a candidate volunteers, GINA's rules cover family medical history heard without asking, and some salary history bans forbid relying on pay history even when the candidate offers it. Sources as of October 2026; not legal advice.
Why is an AI transcript different from your own notes?
When you take notes by hand, you decide in the moment what to leave out, which is what what not to write in interview notes teaches. A verbatim transcript makes no such choice. "I'll need flexibility in March, the baby's due then" or "I left because of my treatment" sits in the record word for word, and an AI summary may lift it into a bullet point that a hiring manager reads first. Three things follow:
- The information now exists in a hiring record, whether or not anyone meant to collect it.
- It can spread automatically: summaries, shared links, ATS notes and client submittals.
- Deleting it is not simply a clean-up, because the transcript itself may be a record you must keep.
What should you do right after the interview?
- Check the AI summary before anyone else sees it. Remove any line that mentions health, pregnancy, family, religion, pay history or similar, and fix anything the summary got wrong (see AI note taker hallucinations).
- Keep it out of the scorecard and submittal. Score only the job-related evidence. If a topic touches a stated requirement, record only the job-related answer, such as "confirmed the March start date works", not the reason.
- Do not follow up. No questions about the condition, the pregnancy or the family member. If the candidate asked for an accommodation for the interview or the job, pass that to HR, who can ask the limited questions the EEOC allows.
- Leave the original transcript in place if your retention schedule requires keeping it, and do not edit it.
- Restrict access to the transcript and recording: the people who need it for records or a dispute, not the whole hiring team.
- Tell decision-makers nothing about it. If anyone asks why a topic came up, "personal detail shared, not used" is the whole answer.
What does the law say about each kind of information?
| Information | The rule | What to do with the transcript | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health or disability (US) | The confidentiality duty extends to medical information a candidate voluntarily tells you. Medical information must be kept in separate medical files; if a document with medical details goes into a personnel file, the medical details must be removed first. Share it only with people in the hiring process who need to know. | No medical details in scorecards, summaries or submittals; transcript access restricted | EEOC pre-employment guidance |
| Family medical history (US, GINA) | Applicants are covered. Learning it without asking is inadvertent acquisition, but probing follow-up questions lose that exception. It cannot be used to discriminate, and written genetic information must be kept confidential in separate medical files, electronic files included. | No follow-ups; never in summaries; restrict and treat as confidential | 29 CFR 1635.2(c); 1635.8; 1635.9 |
| Pregnancy (US) | Pregnancy discrimination is unlawful, and Title VII covers the hiring and selection process, including potential pregnancy. | Never in summaries or scoring; see the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in hiring for accommodation requests | EEOC |
| Pay history | Many states and cities restrict asking for or relying on it. In Illinois a candidate may volunteer it, but only on condition that the employer does not consider or rely on it in deciding whether to hire or what to offer. | Keep it out of summaries and submittals; record the expectation instead. State list in salary history ban states | 820 ILCS 112/10 |
| Criminal history before an offer | Fair-chance laws restrict criminal history questions before an offer in many states and cities. California's Fair Chance Act, for example, generally prohibits employers with five or more employees from asking about conviction history before a job offer. | Do not score or pass it on; see ban-the-box interview questions | California Civil Rights Department |
| Health and other special category data (UK) | The Equality Act 2010 bars asking about an applicant's health before offering work, with narrow exceptions. Health, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation are special category data under UK GDPR Article 9, which needs an extra condition to process. | Do not use it; keep it out of outputs; delete on schedule | Equality Act s.60; UK GDPR Art. 9 |
Should you delete it or keep it?
The instinct is to delete the offending passage. Usually, don't. US employers must preserve any personnel or employment record they make or keep, including records having to do with hiring, for one year from the record or the personnel action, and until final disposition if a charge of discrimination is filed (29 CFR 1602.14). An interview transcript can be that record. Cutting out the part a candidate might later point to can look worse than the remark itself.
The workable pattern is two layers:
- The original (recording and transcript) stays unedited, with restricted access, until its retention period ends; then it is deleted on schedule, as described in how long to keep interview notes.
- The working documents (summary, scorecard, submittal, ATS note) contain only job-related evidence, so the information never reaches the people deciding.
This mirrors the EEOC's own instruction for paper files: remove the medical information from the document before it goes into the personnel file, and keep the medical information separately. In the UK and EU, the same logic fits data minimization: keep the original only for its documented purpose and period, and keep everything derived from it lean.
Who should be able to open the transcript?
Fewer people than can see the scorecard. The interviewer, a records owner and whoever handles disputes or access requests, not every interviewer on the loop and never the agency's client. A role-by-role model, with the settings Greenhouse, Ashby, Zoom and Teams document, is in who should have access to interview recordings.
How do you stop the summary from surfacing it next time?
- Make the summary template job-only. Fields for each requirement and the evidence for it; no free-text "personal notes" or "other" field. Metaview's own guidance, for example, tells customers not to include template fields that refer to personal traits or emotions, and to review, edit and redact outputs before finalizing (Metaview AI best practices).
- Review before sharing, every time. Treat the AI summary as a draft until a person has read it.
- Keep sharing off by default. Automatic summary emails to all attendees and open links spread whatever the summary contains.
- Steer, don't invite. Questions about availability, travel and schedule should ask whether the candidate can meet the requirement, which avoids reasons. "This role needs two site visits a month; does that work?" is answered with yes or no.
- Cover it in your DPIA. Incidental sensitive data is one of the main risks to assess; see the DPIA template for AI note takers.
What if you are an agency recruiter?
The submittal is the moment of greatest risk, because it leaves your control. A candidate who mentioned a health appointment or a pregnancy on your screen should see none of it in what the client receives, and neither the transcript nor the recording should go to the client by default; see sharing interview recordings with clients. If a client asks directly ("is she planning a family?"), the answer is that you do not ask or pass on that kind of information, and that the client should not consider it either.
Not legal advice. Rules differ by state and country; check with your employment counsel.
Questions people ask
What should I do if a candidate mentions a health condition and the AI note taker transcribes it?
Leave it out of the scorecard, the AI summary and any submittal, do not ask follow-up questions about it, and limit who can open the transcript. The EEOC says the ADA's confidentiality duty covers medical information a candidate volunteers, and that medical details must be removed from a document before it goes into a personnel file. Keep the original transcript if your retention rules require it.
Should I delete the part of the transcript where the candidate mentioned their pregnancy?
Not if the transcript is a record you must keep. US employers must keep hiring records for a year, and longer if a charge is filed, so deleting part of one can look like destroying evidence. Keep the original with restricted access, make sure the pregnancy never appears in summaries, scores or submittals, and do not let it influence the decision.
Is it a GINA violation if a candidate tells me about their family's medical history on a recorded call?
Not by itself. EEOC regulations treat genetic information an employer receives without asking for it as inadvertent acquisition, but the exception is lost if the interviewer follows up with probing questions, and the information still cannot be used and must be kept confidential. Applicants are covered by GINA.
Can I use salary history a candidate volunteered on a recorded screen?
It depends on the state. Illinois, for example, allows a candidate to volunteer it but only on the condition that the employer does not consider or rely on it in deciding whether to hire or what to pay. The safest habit is to keep pay history out of summaries and submittals and record the candidate's expectations instead.