Law / United States / 
Maryland
Facial recognition services in employment interviews: facial templates and applicant consent
Md. Code Ann., Lab. & Empl. § 3-717
In force since .
A biometric privacy rule binding private bodies.
- Excludes recording-derived identifiers
- No
- Obligation class
- Biometric, Consent
As of .
What it requires
- If you are an employer, do not use a facial recognition service to create a facial template during an applicant's interview for employment unless the applicant consents (Lab. & Empl. 3-717(b)).
- Obtain the applicant's consent by a signed waiver that states 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 (Lab. & Empl. 3-717(c)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- May the waiver in section 3-717(c) be collected electronically, given that the section requires only that the applicant consent 'by signing a waiver' that states four items in plain language?
What this law does
A facial recognition service is technology that analyzes facial features and is used for recognition or persistent tracking of individuals in still or video images. A facial template is the machine-interpretable pattern of facial features that is extracted from one or more images of an individual by a facial recognition service.
An employer may not use a facial recognition service for the purpose of creating a facial template during an applicant's interview for employment unless the applicant consents. An applicant may consent by signing a waiver that states 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.
The Department of Legislative Services' fiscal note for House Bill 720 (2023) states that the Act does not apply to State or local governments as employers. Chapter 446 of the Acts of 2020, which added section 3-717, took effect on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app processes biometric data.