New Chrome browser sees, listens to users

When you sit in front of the latest version of the open source Google Chrome browser, beware - the browser can watch you and listen to you, Device Magazine says.

According to the latest post on the official Google Chrome blog, the search giant makes claims about Web apps that can interact with users through the camera on the machine and listen to them with the help of the microphones, if the users give permission.

Chrome 21 also expands its Google Cloud Print functionality, which allows users to print over the Web to any connected printer, Google Drive account (the page is printed as a PDF) or mobile device, PC & Tech Authority writes.

The options are now directly embedded into Chrome's Print dialogue box - click Change... under the Destination printer to choose a device to print to.

The open source Chrome 21 also adds a new API - getUserMedia - which allows Web apps to directly access the user's Web cam or microphone without requiring a separate plug-in. The API is permissions-based, so the user remains in control of which apps are granted access.

As an example of what the getUserMedia API can potentially enable, Google has set up an experiment in its Chrome Web Lab that shows off the power of the API, according to Internet News.

“The Sketchbots experiment uses getUserMedia to let you take a picture of your face, which is then converted to a line drawing and sent to a robot in the Science Museum in London,” Shijing Xian, software engineer at Google wrote in a blog post.

“The robot then draws out your portrait in a patch of sand, which you can watch live on YouTube and visitors can watch in person at the museum. It's just about as crazy as it sounds, and twice as cool.”