Ethics
Screen-Share Privacy in Interviews: What Our Overlay Does (and Doesn't)
Share a window, confirm the overlay is absent from the feed, and keep speaking or typing the answer yourself.
Matthew M
8 min read
Screen-share privacy is a check you do before the round. When you share your screen, the overlay is skipped, so the interviewer does not see it in the feed. You still see it on your display. You still speak or type every answer.
It is not built to get around proctoring or detection tools. If an assessment is proctored, follow its rules. A second camera, or a person looking at your display, is outside this mechanism. The security page states that boundary in one place: https://www.urhiredai.com/security.
The product explanation, including how the window is marked and how to verify it in each meeting app, is https://www.urhiredai.com/docs/screen-share-privacy. This page is the short version you can run before a call. It is a how-to, not a second copy of that guide.
What the overlay does on a share
The overlay window is marked as protected content. Screen-share APIs skip that window. The operating system does the excluding. Nothing is intercepted, and nothing is swapped into the feed in its place.
You see captions and notes on your display. The shared frame does not contain them. That is the whole claim. It holds when the meeting app asks the operating system for a filtered capture, which is what Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams normally do when you share a window or the whole screen.
It does not hold for every capture path. Sharing a browser tab uses the page's own surface, which is a different path. Dedicated proctoring software is a different product. Read the limit before you treat one clean preview as a guarantee for every tool in the room.
What it does not do
The useful version of this feature is the boundary, said in the same words you can check.
- It does not get around proctoring or detection tools. We do not build for that, and a clean share preview is not evidence that we do.
- It does not cover a second camera, or someone who can look at the display you are using.
- It does not change the employer's rule. A share check that works is not permission to open the app on a round that bans tools. The rule note is https://www.urhiredai.com/blog/ai-interview-employer-rules-candidates.
- It does not answer for you. You speak or type every answer they hear.
Three checks before the call
Do this once per meeting app, in a call with yourself. It takes about thirty seconds, and it replaces a guess you would otherwise carry into the round.
- Pick the window to share. Share a specific window, or your whole screen, the same way you will in the interview. When you have the choice, do not share a browser tab. Tab sharing captures the page's own surface, which behaves differently from a desktop capture. The docs page says why: https://www.urhiredai.com/docs/screen-share-privacy.
- Verify the overlay is not in the feed. Start the meeting app with no other participants. Start an URHIRED AI session so the overlay is actually on your display, not only the hub. Share. Look at the share preview the meeting app shows you. The overlay should be absent from that preview. Record a few seconds and play them back if you want a second look.
- Keep speaking or typing the answer yourself. The check is about the feed. The round is still your words. If you are reading a paragraph aloud, you have left the point of the tool. Say or type the answer in your own words.
What you are looking at in the preview
The preview is the feed. If the overlay is on your display and absent from the preview, the share is doing what the protected-content flag is for. If the overlay appears in the preview, stop. Do not start the interview and hope the next frame will be different.
Change the share target to a window or the whole screen, set the meeting app's capture mode if it offers one, and look again. A preview from last month is not today's check. Meeting apps change those modes. Do the check in the app you will actually use, on the machine you will actually use.
You are confirming an absence. The overlay should be missing from the thumbnail, the recording, or both. You are not looking for a blur, a logo, or a special border. Absent means absent.
Misses that put the overlay in the feed
When the preview shows the overlay, the cause is usually the share target or the capture mode. The preview is already telling you which one. Fix that, then look again. Do not start the round on a feed you have not rechecked.
- A browser tab. Tab capture takes the page's own surface. The protected-content flag on the desktop window is not what that path asks for. Share the window or the whole screen instead.
- Zoom left on Auto, or on the mode without window filtering. Set Capture with window filtering, share again, and look at the preview before you trust it.
- A check with no session open. The overlay has to be on the display. If you only opened the hub, there is nothing for the share to skip, and the check does not count.
- A different machine, or a different meeting app, than the interview will use. Run the thirty seconds on that pair. A pass on your other laptop is not this call.
If you fix the target and the overlay is still in the preview, stop. Use the docs page rather than inventing a workaround for a feed you can already see is wrong: https://www.urhiredai.com/docs/screen-share-privacy.
Pair the check with the rule
Screen-share behavior and permission are separate. You can confirm the overlay is absent from the feed and still be on a round that does not allow a tool. In that case the correct move is to leave the app closed. The check does not grant a permission the employer withheld.
A mock before the call is usually fine. A live copilot is only for a round that employer has allowed. The reason to use one app for both, so the surface you practice is the surface you would open live, is https://www.urhiredai.com/blog/mock-vs-live-interview-copilot. If the round is spoken, the practice loop is https://www.urhiredai.com/blog/verbal-interview-practice.
FAQ
Will the interviewer see the overlay?
When you share a window or the whole screen, and the meeting app uses a filtered capture, the overlay is skipped. It stays on your display and out of the shared feed, so the interviewer does not see it there. Check the preview before you count on that. This is not a claim about proctoring software, a second camera, or a person who can look at your display.
Is this built to get around proctoring?
No. It is not built to get around proctoring or detection tools. If the assessment is proctored, follow its rules. The security page is the same statement: https://www.urhiredai.com/security.
Do I still have to answer myself?
Yes. You speak or type every answer. The overlay can be in front of you. The words in the call are still yours.
What if the overlay shows up in the preview?
Do not continue into the interview on that share. Share a window or the whole screen instead of a browser tab, set the meeting app's capture mode if it has one, and look at the preview again. The full verify steps are at https://www.urhiredai.com/docs/screen-share-privacy.
Does a clean preview mean the live round allows a tool?
No. The preview tells you what the feed contains. The employer tells you whether a tool is allowed on that round. Read the rule, or ask, before the call. A working share check is not a yes.
Check the feed, then answer
Run the three checks once in the meeting app you will use. Pick the window to share. Confirm the overlay is absent from the preview. Keep speaking or typing the answer yourself. The full product explanation is https://www.urhiredai.com/docs/screen-share-privacy, and the boundary is also on https://www.urhiredai.com/security. URHIRED AI is the desktop app for that overlay, on macOS and Windows. Download it at https://www.urhiredai.com/download.
