2021’s Android 12 added helpful privacy indicators on top of a bigMaterial Youinterface redesign to all thebest Android phonesout there. When an app is using your microphone or your camera, you will see a small notice and a dot in your phone’s status bar. In addition to that, you can also cut off microphone and camera access for all apps using quick settings toggles. These same features are now coming to ChromeOS, as Google announced in an enterprise-focused blog post.

The enhanced privacy controls will roll out to all currently supported Chromebooks later this year, asGoogle writes in its announcement. Google notes that the new option is already available in the beta channel, but you’re able to also simply enable thechrome://flags/#enable-cros-privacy-hubandchrome://flags/#enable-privacy-indicatorsflags to get the privacy features on the stable version right now.

A screenshot shows the privacy controls section with camera access and microphone access toggles, both in the activated state.

After you’ve restarted your Chromebook, you may head to the Privacy controls section within Security and Privacy in your Chromebook’s system settings. You’ll see two new toggles there to turn off camera and/or microphone access for all apps and websites. The section also lists which cameras and microphones you have connected to your devices, if you have more than just one. In addition to that, you’ll see an indicator in the bottom right corner next to the battery level, showing you at a glance that your microphone and/or camera are accessed by an app or website.

Other features introduced by the company are decidedly more business-focused. A new Data Protection tool makes it possible to protect sensitive company and customer data, hindering employees from copying and pasting and taking screenshots. The Chrome Enterprise framework is also in for new security insights, including the option to monitor logins and logouts.

A screenshot shows the right side of the ChromeOS taskbar, with a green dot next to the battery indicating that camera and/or microphone are in use.

ChromeOS is receiving some serious love from Google right now. The company only recently added new video editing features to the platform, and the addition of phone screen mirroring to the ChromeOS Phone Hub is game-changing. As always, it will likely take quite some time until the new privacy indicators and the other new features are rolled out to everyone.