Avalw Shield, explained

Avalw Shield is a privacy application for Mac and Windows that uses your built-in camera to protect your screen. It detects when you leave your computer and locks it automatically. It detects when someone else is looking at your screen and blurs the content instantly. Everything runs locally on your device. No images are saved, no data is sent anywhere.

Two features, one goal

Shield does two things:

Away Lock watches whether you're sitting in front of your computer. When you step away, the screen locks within seconds. When you come back, Shield recognizes your face and unlocks the screen automatically. No password needed, no keyboard shortcut, no button to press. You sit down and your session is exactly where you left it.

Shoulder Guard watches whether anyone else is looking at your screen while you're working. If someone leans over your shoulder, glances from the next desk, or walks behind you and looks at your display, the screen content blurs instantly. When they look away or leave, the content becomes visible again. The entire cycle happens automatically, without you doing anything.

Both features can be used together or independently. You can use Away Lock without Shoulder Guard, or Shoulder Guard without Away Lock, depending on your environment and needs.

Available on Mac and Windows

Shield is available on both platforms:

• Mac download from the Mac App Store
• Windows download from the Microsoft Store

Both versions share the same architecture and the same privacy guarantees. Everything runs on your device, nothing connects to the internet, no data leaves your computer.

How Away Lock works

While Shield is running, it checks whether your face is visible to the camera. When your face is present, your computer works normally. When you stand up, walk away, or turn away from the screen for longer than a configurable delay, Shield locks the screen.

The default delay is a few seconds. This means briefly looking away or reaching for something on your desk doesn't trigger a lock. But stepping away from your computer for more than a moment does. You can adjust this delay in the settings to match your environment.

When you return, Shield identifies your face and unlocks the screen. There's no password prompt and no Touch ID or fingerprint required. You sit down and your session is waiting for you. Most people stop noticing the lock-unlock cycle within a day or two. It becomes invisible.

If Shield doesn't recognize your face for any reason (camera issue, lighting, appearance change), you can always unlock with your system password, the same password you use to log in to your Mac or Windows account.

How Shoulder Guard works

Shoulder Guard watches for additional faces in the camera's field of view. When it detects someone other than you looking at your screen, it blurs the content instantly. When they look away or leave, the content reappears.

Shoulder Guard doesn't just count faces. It uses attention detection to determine whether someone is actively looking at your screen. A person walking past you won't trigger it. But a person who turns their head and looks at your display will.

You can configure how many viewers Shield allows before blurring. The threshold goes from 1 to 5. Set it to 1 for maximum privacy (blur as soon as anyone else looks). Set it higher if you're in a team meeting and your colleagues need to see your screen.

Zero images saved

This is the question we get most often: if Shield uses the camera, does it store photos?

No. Shield processes camera frames in real time and discards them immediately. Every frame is analyzed, a decision is made (is the user present? is someone else looking?), and the frame is deleted from memory. No image is ever written to disk. No image is ever saved as a file. No image is ever sent anywhere.

The face enrollment process works the same way. When you register your face, Shield converts it into a mathematical template (a set of numbers describing facial geometry, not a photo). The camera frames used during enrollment are discarded immediately after processing. What's stored is math, not an image.

Zero network activity

Shield never connects to the internet. There is no server, no cloud, no backend, no API. The application runs entirely on your device. It was built this way from the beginning.

You can verify this yourself. Open Activity Monitor on Mac or Task Manager on Windows, find Shield, and check its network activity. It will show zero bytes sent and zero bytes received. Always. You can leave it running for weeks and the number will stay at zero.

This also means Shield works completely offline. No Wi-Fi? No problem. Shield doesn't need a connection because it has nowhere to connect to.

The learning model

Shield's face recognition improves over time. When you first enroll, it creates a baseline understanding of your face from a few camera angles. As you use Shield day after day, the mathematical template refines itself based on the variations it encounters: different lighting, different angles, glasses on and off, haircuts, facial hair changes.

After about a week of regular use, recognition becomes noticeably faster and more reliable. After a month, it feels almost instant in virtually every condition you normally work in.

The learning process doesn't save new images. It updates the mathematical template with small adjustments. Camera frames are still processed and discarded in real time, just like during initial enrollment.

Pricing

Shield costs $199 for a lifetime license. One payment, no subscription, no monthly fee, no annual renewal. The license is valid permanently on the device you activate it on.

There is a free trial with full functionality that runs for 30 minutes, giving you enough time to test everything: Away Lock, Shoulder Guard, face enrollment, all settings.

Volume discounts are available for companies purchasing 20 or more licenses.

What Shield does not do

• It does not encrypt your files. Shield protects your screen from visual observation. For disk encryption, use FileVault (Mac) or BitLocker (Windows).
• It does not protect against remote access. Shield detects physical faces through the camera, not digital intrusions through the network.
• It requires a camera. If your device doesn't have a working camera, Shield cannot function.
• It needs reasonable lighting. Shield works in dim conditions, but in near-total darkness, detection accuracy drops. A desk lamp or monitor glow is usually enough.

Getting started

Download Shield from the Mac App Store or Microsoft Store. Grant camera permission when prompted. Register your face (takes less than a minute). Shield starts working immediately.

There is no account required to try the free trial. If you decide to purchase, create an account on shield.avalw.ai and activate your license in the app.

Go to Avalw Shield