diff --git a/src/security.rst b/src/security.rst
index 35ab766..b141fb7 100644
--- a/src/security.rst
+++ b/src/security.rst
@@ -12,7 +12,30 @@ ActivityWatch is only as secure as your system
 
 Some things we can't protect against. Examples are malware running on the same host and anything that can access the database file.
 
-As an example, ActivityWatch is not secure on systems with multiple users (due to there being no API authentication).
+As an example, ActivityWatch is not secure on systems with multiple users, since the API is unauthenticated by default (see `API authentication`_ below).
+
+
+API authentication
+------------------
+
+By default, the ActivityWatch API requires no authentication: any process that can reach the server (normally only processes on the same machine, since it listens on ``localhost``) can read, write, and delete all data.
+
+``aw-server-rust`` supports **opt-in** API key authentication. To enable it, set an API key under the ``[auth]`` section of the server's ``config.toml`` (see `directories <config-directory>` for its location) and restart the server:
+
+.. code-block:: toml
+
+    [auth]
+    api_key = "your-secret-key-here"
+
+When an API key is set, every request to ``/api/*`` (except ``GET /api/0/info``) must include the header ``Authorization: Bearer <api_key>``, otherwise the server responds with ``401 Unauthorized``. An empty ``api_key`` leaves authentication disabled.
+
+Things to keep in mind:
+
+- Authentication is disabled by default on desktop, so existing setups keep working unchanged.
+- It is only supported by ``aw-server-rust``. ``aw-server`` (Python) does not support it.
+- Every client must send the key. ``aw-sync`` reads it from the server config automatically, and ``aw-client-rust`` accepts one via ``AwClient::new_with_api_key``, but other clients and watchers may not support it yet and will fail with ``401`` once it's enabled.
+- The key protects the API, not the data at rest: anything that can read the config file or the database file can still access your data.
+- Authentication does not make it safe to expose the server on a network. The API is served over plain HTTP, so see `remote-server` before doing so.
 
 
 Deleting sensitive data