I am my family's password manager

Published on December 18, 2019 Authentication

I wrote this right after a phone call from my mum, asking me for her gmail password. Which she set herself last time I was with them (because she couldn’t remember the previous one). So I saved it in my password manager just in case…

They basically have all sessions logged in on their phones and computers, and use “Forgot my password” whenever they actually need to login to anything. Because of that they end up choosing some random new password for each service every time that happens, and obviously forget it the next time they need it.

Next time I see them I might try to get them into an actual password manager, but people from their generation don’t seem to care at all about their passwords (or maybe it’s just my family).

It’s an interesting problem, and I think the solution will just be to go passwordless over time, with your phone acting as your Identity Provider somehow…