What the Honorlock Extension Can See (and How to Remove It After Your Exam)

What is the Honorlock Chrome extension?

Honorlock is an online proctoring service, and its Chrome extension is how it connects to your browser during a test. Your instructor switches it on for a specific exam inside your course platform (commonly Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle or D2L Brightspace), and the extension then handles the camera, microphone, screen capture and browser rules for that session.

It is not a general-purpose tool. You never use it for anything else, and it has nothing to show you between exams. That makes it an unusual extension: you install it because a class requires it, you trust it with very broad access for an hour or two, and then it sits in your toolbar until you decide what to do with it.

Honorlock pairs automated monitoring with human proctors. Software watches for things like a second face, a missing face or unusual browser activity, and a live proctor can join the session when something is flagged. Afterwards, your instructor reviews the flagged moments rather than watching every minute of the recording.

The official product site is honorlock.com. For which browser and device your course supports, your school's exam instructions are the authority, because institutions configure things differently. If you're setting up a laptop for the term, our picks for students cover the tools worth keeping installed the rest of the time.

What can Honorlock see during an exam?

During an active exam, Honorlock can see and hear whatever your webcam and microphone pick up, capture what is on your screen, and watch what happens in your browser. Before the test starts, it also takes a photo of you and your ID and usually asks for a room scan.

Screen capture is the part people underestimate. If you share your entire screen, the recording includes everything visible in any window: notification banners, chat pop-ups, a document you forgot to close. Close what you don't need before the session starts and switch on Do Not Disturb in your operating system.

What it cannot do is reach beyond what your devices expose. It cannot see a phone on your desk unless the camera sees it, and simply being installed does not let it browse the files on your computer. Chrome's sandbox limits an extension to the permissions it declared and to what you actively share with it.

What permissions does the Honorlock extension ask for?

Proctoring extensions request some of the broadest permissions you'll see in the Chrome Web Store, because their job is to watch and restrict the browser. The exact list can change between versions, so read it on your own machine instead of trusting an old forum screenshot.

1. Type chrome://extensions into the address bar and press Enter.
2. Find Honorlock in the list and click Details.
3. Read the Permissions section: it lists what the extension declared when it was installed.
4. Check Site access to see whether it runs on all sites, on specific sites, or only when you click it.
5. Confirm Allow in Incognito is off unless your exam instructions say otherwise.

Expect warnings from this family: reading and changing data on websites you visit, managing your other apps and extensions (so it can detect ones that break exam rules), reading browsing history, and capturing screen content. Each sounds alarming in isolation. Together they describe what a proctoring tool has to do to lock down a browser.

Our plain-language guide to Chrome permission warnings explains each one, including which are routine and which deserve a second look. The same logic applies to any extension, which is why our review methodology weighs requested permissions against what the extension actually needs to do.

Can Honorlock see you when you're not taking an exam?

Recording is tied to an exam session: it starts when you launch a proctored test and complete the checks, and camera, microphone and screen capture end when you submit. Chrome and your laptop's camera light make camera and screen use visible, so you would notice if they were running.

The honest nuance is that any installed, enabled extension with broad site access can technically run code on the pages you visit, exam or not. Camera and screen capture come with visible indicators; ordinary page access (reading what's on a site) does not. What an extension does with that access is governed by its code and its privacy policy.

How recordings are stored, who reviews them and how long they are kept is covered by Honorlock's privacy policy and your school's agreement with the vendor. If retention matters to you, ask your institution's IT, accessibility or academic integrity office; they can tell you who sees the footage and for how long.

The simplest way to remove doubt is structural: a disabled or removed extension cannot run at all. Here is what each state means in practice.

Enabled

Installed and allowed to run wherever its site access rules match. This is the state you need during an exam.

Disabled

Still installed, but none of its code runs. Turn it back on with one toggle at chrome://extensions before your next test.

Removed

Uninstalled along with its local data. Your next proctored exam will prompt you to add it again from the Chrome Web Store.

How do you install Honorlock and pass the pre-exam checks?

You install it from the exam itself. When you open a proctored quiz in your course, Honorlock prompts you to add the extension from the Chrome Web Store and then walks you through identity and room checks.

1. Open Google Chrome (not another browser) and sign in to your course platform.
2. Open the proctored exam and click the Honorlock launch button; the exact wording varies by school.
3. When prompted, click Add to Chrome, then Add extension in the confirmation dialog.
4. When Chrome asks for camera and microphone access, click Allow.
5. Take the face photo and hold your ID up to the webcam when asked.
6. Do the room scan: slowly pan the webcam, or the whole laptop, around your desk and room.
7. If a screen-sharing picker appears, choose Entire screen, select your display and click Share.
8. Start the exam, and do not close the Honorlock tab or the sharing bar until you have submitted.

Do a dry run a day or two before. Many instructors publish a practice quiz with Honorlock enabled; if yours does, take it. It surfaces camera, microphone and permission problems while you still have time to fix them or contact support.

On a school-managed Chromebook the flow is similar, but the extension may already be installed and pinned by your administrator. On a personal computer, make sure Chrome is current first at chrome://settings/help, since an outdated browser is a common reason the launch step stalls.

Which extensions should you turn off before a proctored exam?

Turn off anything that changes how pages behave, looks things up for you, or disguises your browser. Proctoring software may block the exam, flag the session, or fail to load when another extension interferes.

The quickest method is to pause everything: on chrome://extensions, toggle off each extension except Honorlock, then switch them back on after you submit. A cleaner option is a dedicated exam profile. Click your profile picture at the top right of Chrome, choose Add, create a new profile, and install only Honorlock there.

A separate profile keeps your everyday extensions, logins, bookmarks and open tabs out of the proctored window entirely. It also means you never forget to re-enable your normal tools, because your main profile is untouched. For study tools worth using outside exam time, browse our extensions for students.

How do you remove the Honorlock extension after your exam?

Right-click the Honorlock icon in the toolbar and choose Remove from Chrome, or remove it from chrome://extensions. If a retake or a resumed session is possible, wait until your exam status is confirmed first.

1. Open chrome://extensions in a new tab.
2. Find Honorlock and click Remove.
3. Click Remove again in the confirmation dialog. Leave the report-abuse checkbox unticked unless you have a genuine concern.
4. If the icon is hidden, click the puzzle-piece Extensions button in the toolbar, then the three dots next to Honorlock, then Remove from Chrome.

These steps are the same on Windows, Mac and Linux, and on a personal Chromebook. If Honorlock shows a building icon or a note that it is installed by your administrator, your school has force-installed it through device or account policy. You can't remove it yourself, and it will return if you try; only your school's IT team can change that.

More exams coming this term? Disabling is a sensible middle ground: flip the toggle off after each test and on before the next. For every removal method, including fixes for extensions that refuse to leave, see how to remove a Chrome extension. Google's own help page on installing and managing extensions covers the same controls.

How do you revoke camera, microphone and screen access afterwards?

Removing the extension ends its access, but it's worth pruning the site permissions you granted along the way, especially any you allowed for your course site or exam pages.

1. Go to chrome://settings/content/camera and review the list of sites allowed to use your camera; click the trash icon beside any you no longer need.
2. Repeat at chrome://settings/content/microphone.
3. On a Mac, open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording (called Screen Recording on older macOS) and review which apps can capture your screen.
4. On Windows 11, open Settings > Privacy & security, then Camera and Microphone, to see which apps have access.

Leave Chrome's own camera access switched on at the operating-system level if you use video calls; you're only removing individual site entries. A removed site simply triggers a fresh prompt next time, which is the behaviour you want for anything you use a few times a term. Google explains these prompts in its help page on using your camera and microphone in Chrome.

If you sat the exam on a shared or library computer, also sign out of your course platform and make sure Chrome didn't save your university login. Our guide to viewing saved passwords in Chrome shows exactly where to look and how to delete an entry.

What if Honorlock won't install, can't find your camera or keeps coming back?

Most problems come from the wrong browser, a blocked permission, or another app holding the camera. Work through these before contacting support.

• The extension won't install: confirm you're in Google Chrome, that it's up to date at chrome://settings/help, and that you're not in a Guest window or a profile where your school blocks extensions.
• Camera not detected: quit Zoom, Teams, FaceTime or any other app using the webcam, then reload the exam page. Click the camera icon in the address bar and make sure it's set to allow.
• Screen sharing fails on a Mac: grant Chrome screen-recording permission in System Settings, then quit and reopen Chrome; macOS applies the change only after the app restarts.
• The exam says an extension isn't allowed: disable the others at chrome://extensions, or switch to a clean exam-only profile.
• Honorlock reappears after removal: your device or Google account is managed by your school; ask the IT help desk.
• Recording stopped mid-exam: don't close the tab. Note the time, use the in-session support option if one is offered, and email your instructor straight away.

Keep a short record of any technical problem: the time, what you saw on screen, and who you contacted. If a session is flagged because of a glitch rather than anything you did, that record makes the conversation with your instructor much easier.

More guides on browser privacy and extension housekeeping are on our blog.