When HP released an ad for a laptop camera privacy button

It’s a feature that gained limelight during the lockdowns and has now earned an ad for itself.

Last year, the sales of laptops skyrocketed because the Coronavirus induced lockdowns forced most of the population to work from home and for students to study from home.

As per the International Data Corporation (IDC) in November 2020, the traditional PC market inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstation shipped 3.4 million units in the September (3Q2020), a 9.2 per cent growth from last year, resulting in 3Q20 being the biggest quarter in the last seven years.

Also Read: It's growth season for laptops, but will it sustain post lockdown?

The now-ubiquitous work from home culture has prompted many new work features, one of the most important one being video calls. Every day, we have to attend at least one or two video calls. There’s no ignoring it.

But, the everyday use of our video camera raises privacy and safety issues too. Nobody likes a peeper. HP, a leading tech brand’s recent ad addresses the issue with its Envy range of laptops that offer a privacy button.

It’s an interesting feature but not entirely new because we also spotted a 2018 HP ad from Germany where one could hide the camera lens using a physical camera shutter.

A point that stood out was that most of us use the camera for video calls and these platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet offer you the option to hide your video feed. How does the HP feature fit in?