Future Chromebooks may get an option to warn about peepers

Future Chromebooks may have a feature that allows the laptop camera to see if people are watching. Then it may be able to warn the user or lower the screen brightness automatically.

This feature could be enabled with a snooping protection flag in chrome://flags if it becomes available, 9to5Google discovered. The site reports that a ‘Human Presence Sensor’ is used for this. 9to5Google had already noticed this and, according to the site, it may be built in future Chromebooks. With this sensor, the laptop camera can detect at all times how many people are visible next to the user.

According to 9to5Google, users can decide for themselves what action the Chromebook should take when someone is watching. For example, it can give a warning by showing an eye symbol, but also immediately lowering the screen brightness is an option. It will also be possible to automatically disable notifications when someone is watching.

Since there are currently no Chromebooks with the Human Presence Sensor, 9to5Google expects this ‘snooping protection’ function to take a while. The website expects such laptops in 2022 at the earliest. Google itself has not officially announced anything about the existence of such a sensor.