Here's the thing .. as crazy as a notebook with passwords sounds, it's not accessible to someone across the internet.
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Password managers check the URL before giving its data. A human being can be fooled into giving it to a fake web site.
TBF, they can be fooled too.
Bitwarden warns against using autofill on load for that very reason, as then simply loading a malicious page might cause it to provide passwords to such a site.
And then, a human when a site doesn't autofill, is more likely to just go "huh, weird" and do it manually.
they can be fooled too.
Makes it harder: when I go to the wrong website, the manager simply doesn't suggest credentials (it does not have) for it. That causes me to wonder why.
Without a password manager, a user is never prompted to wonder. They'd simply not notice.
You've always got the human element, bypassing security features; but extra little hurdles like a password manager refusing to autofill an unknown url is at least one more opportunity for the user to recognize that something's wrong and back away.
If you're already used to manually typing in the auth details, you may not even notice you're not on the site you were expecting.
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but:
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way less convenient to generate dozens and dozens of unique, complex passwords. which means it’s less likely to be used/updated as much as it should be.
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not tied into MFA which is an additional layer of security and convenience
Yeah, It's actually quite a secure way to store passwords, since it requires physical access.
I knew a guy who had a drawer full of slips of paper with passwords written on. He called it the "security drawer". Made me smile, but probably shouldn't have been advertising it.
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I had one of these I got it around 15ya but I never used it. I remember liking a particular aspect of it as if I had a specific use-case in which it would be handy but I can't remember what that was. Anyways, I've been on the keepass bandwagon through multiple reboots of it's software lineage along with Keepass2Android and I am satisfied.
this is my internet password logbook
Silly, you just posted a picture of your key now everyone can access your passwords
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That is tight as hell and I love it
you too can have it (not my listing): https://www.depop.com/products/christy19js-rare-1990-sanrio-spotty-dotty/
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Honestly, a physical password book isn't a bad idea.
Not accessible via the internet, and in most cases if someone has physical access to your system you're done for anyway.
The main weakness it has is from a nosey flatmate, spouse, or child in the house.
Yep. My Dad in his late 70s uses this system and it works great for him.
People make fun of it, but for people with low tech literacy this is actually far better than having a mish-mash of solutions where some their logins end up automatically saved in iOS on their phone, some are saved in Chrome on the desktop, some are just in their head, they don't know where anything is, and are constantly losing access and resetting credentials all the time.
And it definitely reduces the burden on me of parental tech support, when its all in the book.
My Mum died recently and my step dad is shit with tech, so their password book was invaluable in helping us gain access to her Apple account and her phone. It meant we were able to get to her iCloud passwords, so now we have access to everything.
So yeah, password books are actually pretty handy.
The main weakness
is it's a pain in the ass.
- Won't generate strong passwords.
- Won't fill out login forms for me.
- Manual, slower search and copying (worse for dyslexia).
- Increases risk of submitting credentials to wrong site/app (especially malicious ones).
- Increases error of mistyping credentials.
- More effort to back up & retrieve.
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My mother uses something similar to keep track of her passwords for everything. While I prefer a password manager like Bitwarden or Keepass. I would rather her use a note book like this over something like Google or Apples password managers.
Or even worse, the same password for everything.
Sure, it's a horrible idea in an open office environment but if someone wants to use this at home for all their passwords it really won't hurt anything.
Especially when helping your parents living in the middle of nowhere.
Seeing them struggle with the changes happening in the last few decades, makes me worry what I'll be like when i need some young whippersnapper so that I can pay via personal, irrational, conditional thinking.
makes me worry what I'll be like when i need some young whippersnapper so that I can pay via personal, irrational, conditional thinking.
Sometimes I share this fear.
But then I think - I'm on Lemmy, so I think "I'm still hip to new jazz."
But then I remember that Virtual Reality will (probably) be commonplace someday, and something somewhere will require it - and I know in my heart that I'll complain loudly about it before, during, and after I (demand that my grandchild) use it (for me).
Oh yeah, this is for my in-laws. This is peak boomer tech right here.
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So... It's a password book? Like, pen and paper?Not the best choice for storing passwords, but I'd be more willing to do that than trusting Amazon not to hold my passwords hostage with a digital service by them.
That’s exactly what I use. Chances of my house getting robbed is small. Chances of yet another data breach is very high - this year my data was breached at least 2ce that I remember.
This isn't even weird.
I think most security experts would recommend that you have your most important passwords written down somewhere, and then hopefully locked up in some safe or deposit box somewhere. You don't need to buy an entire book for it, but some people like to spend money.
If this is for your less important passwords, then for the most part, writing them down is actually better. You won't be as tempted to reuse your banking password for your social media. And some people like writing things down. A password manager is a better solution, but lots of people aren't as good with technology and if they even let the browser remember it, they won't know how to retrieve it later if they want to use a different computer, for example.
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