AI Overlay for SMOWL Proctoring on Mac
SMOWL is the proctoring product built by Smiley Owl Tech (Smowltech) of Spain. It is the de-facto proctoring layer for UNIR (International University of La Rioja) and other large Spanish online universities, and ships primarily as a Chromium browser extension with an optional Browser Lock mode.
SMOWL is a Chromium-only extension. The vendor explicitly does not support Safari or Firefox; the extension is published for Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi. The classic SMOWL product runs in "monitoring" mode, periodically snapping the webcam and the screen and uploading the pair to Smowltech servers for asynchronous AI review. The newer SMOWL Extension adds a Browser Lock feature that monitors tab/window switching, new-window opening, copy/paste, screen-print, keyboard combinations, and forced-close attempts. Crucially, Browser Lock blocks behavior inside the browser but cannot reach outside it: a separate macOS application window owned by a different process is invisible to its event hooks.
Key points
- Smowltech is headquartered in Spain; SMOWL is the most-deployed proctoring tool at Spanish online universities including UNIR.
- Chromium-only: works in Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi. Not supported on Safari or Firefox per vendor.
- Two modes: classic SMOWL (periodic snapshots, async AI review) and SMOWL Extension with Browser Lock (active in-browser monitoring).
- Browser Lock hooks events inside the browser (tab switching, copy/paste, keyboard combos). Out-of-process macOS windows are outside its scope.
- SMOWL faced AEPD scrutiny in Spain after UNIR exam failures; some institutions disable face recognition while keeping screen capture.
How it works
┌── macOS host ─────────────────────────────────┐ │ ┌── Safari/Chrome ─────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌── proctoring extension ─┐ │ │ │ │ │ Browser screen-capture │ │ ← reads │ │ │ │ → exam recording │ │ visible │ │ │ └─────────────────────────┘ │ pixels │ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌── LDBypass overlay ──────────┐ ← rendered │ │ │ ChatGPT / Claude / Ollama │ excluded │ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ from cap │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Compatibility on Mac
| macOS 14 Sonoma+ | Yes (required for window-privacy API) | ✓ |
| Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) | Native arm64 build | ✓ |
| Intel Macs (2019+) | Universal binary supported | ✓ |
| SMOWL Chrome / Edge / Brave extension | Chromium capture honors window privacy | ✓ |
| SMOWL Browser Lock mode | Hooks browser events; cannot see external windows | ✓ |
| Safari / Firefox | SMOWL does not support these on Mac | ✗ |
Common questions
Will SMOWL face-recognition step fail because of the overlay?
No. Face recognition uses the webcam to match your face against the photo on file. The webcam pipeline is independent from screen capture.
Does SMOWL Browser Lock detect the overlay through its keyboard hooks?
No. Browser Lock hooks live inside the browser process and observe keyboard combos sent to the browser. LDBypass uses a system-wide hot-key handled below the browser.
My university uses SMOWL through Moodle. Does that change anything?
No. SMOWL Moodle integration is an LTI handoff; the actual capture still runs in the same Chromium extension on Mac.
Is the overlay still invisible during the async AI review?
Yes. The AI reviews the snapshots and video SMOWL captured. Those captures were filtered through macOS compositor at capture time.
Are there legal or data-protection concerns specific to SMOWL?
Yes. Spain AEPD has investigated SMOWL deployments after student complaints (notably the HUxIR case at UNIR).