Why ParakeetAI stays private
This overview sets out what a meeting or interview platform can observe on your computer, and how the ParakeetAI desktop app and browser version handle each of those signals.
Nothing joins your call
Both versions start from the same place: ParakeetAI is never part of the call.
No bot in the meeting
ParakeetAI never dials in, never asks to record, and never shows up in the participant list. The only people on the call are the ones who were already there.
No browser extension
There is nothing injected into the interview page for it to find. ParakeetAI is a desktop app or its own tab, never code running inside the page you are tested on.
Listens from your side
It hears the call the way you do, from your computer's sound and your microphone. No virtual microphone or audio driver is added for a meeting app to list.
What the other side can see
Zoom, Teams, Meet, CoderPad and HackerRank run in a browser tab or as a meeting app. Either way they learn about you through a short, known list of signals.
Can see
- What you choose to share: a screen, a window or a tab
- Whether its own tab or window has focus, through the page's focus and visibility events
- What you type or paste into its own page
- Your camera and microphone, if you turn them on
Can't see
- Windows the operating system leaves out of screen capture
- Your other tabs, windows and apps: a web page is sandboxed to itself
- Your process list or what else is installed
- Sound your computer captures for itself
Staying private means giving none of the signals on the left away. Here is how each version does that.
The desktop app, signal by signal
A native app can do things no web page can. Here is what happens to each signal.
Left out of every capture
The window is left out of screen capture by the operating system itself, so a share of your whole screen shows what is behind it instead. It is the Private switch in the ⋮ menu, on by default and switched back on for every session. In Zoom, turn on Advanced capture with window filtering so Zoom honors it.
No icon anywhere
No Dock icon on macOS, nothing in the taskbar on Windows, and nothing in Mission Control. Opening or using it never adds anything to the parts of your screen others look at.
Nothing to point at
If you are asked to open Activity Monitor or Task Manager, ParakeetAI's row has no readable name and no logo.
Read and click without leaving the page
Coding platforms notice when their page loses focus. Reading answers, clicking ParakeetAI's buttons and its answer shortcuts leave focus on the interview tab, and Auto Answer means you rarely need even that. Typing your own question into ParakeetAI is the exception: the keyboard has to move to it, and the page can notice.
The arrow stays an arrow
Hovering a button or a text field normally turns the cursor into a hand or an I-beam, which shows on a shared screen. Every control in ParakeetAI keeps the default arrow.
Captured on your device
Your computer's sound and your microphone are captured on the device itself. The meeting app keeps its microphone and speakers to itself and has nothing new to see.
The browser version, honestly
The browser version is a normal Chrome tab, so it can't hide itself the way the desktop app does. It stays private by where you put it.
- Its own page and code editor
- Whether its tab has focus
- What you type or paste into it
- Your camera and microphone, if allowed
- Your other tabs and what is in them
- Other windows and desktop apps
- Your process list and installed apps
- Sound captured by another app
Share a tab or a window, not your screen
No browser lets a page hide itself from screen capture, so the ParakeetAI tab shows in any share that includes it. Share only the interview's tab or window, or keep ParakeetAI on a screen you are not sharing.
The interview page can't see it
Every tab is sandboxed: the page you are tested on cannot list your other tabs or read what is in them. ParakeetAI hears the call through the tab you share to it, with Also share tab audio ticked, and nothing is added to the interview's tab.
Don't click away
Clicking into the ParakeetAI tab is a focus change the interview page can notice. Turn on Auto Answer and answers arrive as questions are asked, so there is nothing to click: keep ParakeetAI in its own window beside the call and just read.
Or keep it off the computer
Open parakeet-ai.com on your phone and the mobile version listens through the phone's microphone. Nothing runs on the computer you interview on.
Side by side
If you can install an app, the desktop app closes every signal on its own.
| Signal | Desktop app | Browser version |
|---|---|---|
| Joins the meeting | Never | Never |
| A tab or window share | Not in it | Not in it |
| A full-screen share | Hidden | Shows if on that screen |
| Dock and taskbar | No icon | Part of your browser |
| Activity Monitor / Task Manager | No readable name | Part of your browser |
| Tab-switch detection | Only if you type a question | Whenever you click it |
| Cursor | Stays an arrow | Changes on hover |
Tested, not just claimed
Claims are cheap. We run the desktop app through a screen share on each of these and record it.
We check it stays invisible on every one of these
Checked recently8 of 8
Verified
Open one to watch that test yourself.
What no app can hide
No software on your computer can change these, so we don't pretend to.
- Your camera: where your eyes go is yours to manage.
- Proctoring software you install, and lockdown browsers, can look at your whole computer. We make no claims about how any of them behave.
- An interview in person.
Whether a tool like this is allowed depends on the company's policy and the platform's rules. Check both before you rely on it.