AI Overlay for Respondus Monitor (vs Plain LDB)

Respondus Monitor adds webcam and screen recording on top of LockDown Browser. The recording is uploaded to Respondus' cloud and reviewed asynchronously by ML plus an optional human reviewer. Plain LockDown Browser without Monitor only locks the system; Monitor is the layer that records.

Respondus Monitor is the recording layer; LockDown Browser is the lockdown layer. They run together but are technically separate. Monitor uses standard macOS capture APIs because that's what Apple ships - there is no kernel extension or system extension required. ScreenCaptureKit on Mac honors window privacy at the OS level, before the captured frames reach Monitor. Fracture sets the flag, so the frames Monitor uploads are identical to what they would be without the overlay running. Monitor's ML reviewers and the human spot-checks see the unfiltered exam screen but not the overlay region.

Apple shipped a behavior change in 15.4 that gave certain capture clients access to flagged windows. We have not validated a workaround for Monitor on those versions; staying on macOS 14 is the safe path.

Monitor exams require a webcam check before starting. If you do not see a webcam preview pre-exam, Monitor is off and only the LockDown layer is active.

They watch the same recording the ML reviewer scores. The overlay is missing from those frames. There is nothing to look at.