Frequently asked questions
If your question is not here, write to us. A real person answers, usually within 24 hours on business days.
Is AFKSecurity a private security or guarding company?
No. It is cybersecurity software. It does not provide physical surveillance, guarding, or the protection of people or premises.
Is it an antivirus?
No, and it is not meant to replace one. It never opens, scans or moves your files. Keep the antivirus you already have and run this beside it.
Then what does it actually detect?
Behaviour. Firewall rules created while nobody is there, programs that install themselves to come back at boot, outbound connections, interpreters running with no window, a keyboard that appears in the middle of the night. There is no signature database and nothing to download every morning.
Does it need frequent updates like a traditional antivirus?
No. There are no rule lists to keep current. Updates exist for maintenance, compatibility and security of the software itself, and you are told when one is available.
Do you collect or send my data?
No. Nothing about your activity leaves the machine. No keystrokes, no window titles, no command lines, no file paths, and network destinations are stored as a salted fingerprint rather than in clear. Each of those limits is held by an automated test that fails if it stops being true.
So why does it need an internet connection?
To activate a licence or start the trial, then once a day to check that the subscription is still valid. It sends a non-reversible fingerprint of the computer, plus your licence key at activation, and the server records the IP address of that connection. Nothing else, and nothing produced by your use of the software. The detail is in the privacy policy.
Why does the software ask me for a password?
Only if you set one. Since version 1.0.5, Settings lets you protect exceptions with a password. Once it is set, granting an exception needs it, and so does ticking "Don't ask me again for this program" when you answer "Yes, that's me". Without it, someone sitting at your computer, or a program driving the AFKSecurity window, could tell the software to leave a program alone. Removing an exception never needs the password.
The password itself is never stored. The protection service keeps a salted, slow fingerprint of it and does the check on its own side. Every wrong attempt is written to the log, and after three in a row each new attempt has to wait longer than the last.
If you forget it, the licence key of that computer lets you choose a new one, from the same screen. The key is not kept on your computer. Our server puts a fingerprint of it in the signed licence token the software receives with each daily check, and the software compares the key you type with that fingerprint, without going online. If the screen says the key cannot be used yet, write to support.
Before and after you pay
How long is the trial?
Fourteen days, complete. No payment method, no account, nothing disabled. When it ends, nothing is charged: the software keeps watching and recording, but no longer freezes programs or cuts the network.
Why does the software show about 34 days left when I paid for a year?
That number is not the end of your subscription. It is how long the software can keep working without reaching our server. Every day it renews that allowance, which never goes above 35 days, for as long as your subscription runs. In the last five weeks of the subscription, it counts down to the real end date.
The cap is deliberate: it lets a cancellation or a refund take effect within five weeks at most, even on a computer that blocks our server. It also means a network outage of several weeks never leaves you unprotected.
Since version 1.0.4, the licence screen shows both numbers on separate lines: the days of use left without contacting the server, and the licence time remaining, with its end or renewal date.
Can I change my mind after buying?
Yes, for fourteen days, with no reason to give and no condition to meet, even after downloading and activating. No waiver of this right is requested. One email is enough. See the withdrawal page.
How do I cancel a subscription?
From the application, or by writing to us. It stops at the end of the period you have already paid for, and the software keeps working until then.
How do I contact support?
support@afksecurity.online, in French or English. Tell us the version shown in the About tab of the application, it saves a round trip.
Everything is written down
All of these are also installed with the software and readable from its About tab, offline, in the version you accepted.