Four in Ten Americans Use Embarrassing Passwords

A large proportion of Americans are protecting their digital accounts with passwords that they would be embarrassed to say out loud.

According to new research by identity management company Beyond Identity, nearly four in ten (38%) users in the United States defend their data with a password that could raise a blush. 

While 16% of those users had reached for a profanity when coming up with an access phrase, more than a quarter (26%) referenced a niche interest in their password that they did not want others to know. 

Millennials were found to be the age group most likely to include the name of a loved one in the password, with 23% using the name of a family member and 18% relying on the moniker of a romantic interest. 

Two in three Americans (68%) said they would share their passwords with a spouse or partner, while 57% said they would tell a significant other their password. 

Parents were deemed safe to share a password with, according to 43% of respondents, while 39% would tell their password to a sibling. Almost a quarter (23%) would share their password with their roommate or co-worker. 

Generation Z made their passwords work the hardest by holding onto them for the longest time. Four in ten Gen Zers had been using their oldest password for between six and ten years. 

Of the 1,030 Americans surveyed about their password habits at the end of April this year, one in ten said they had been using at least one of their passwords since middle school or high school.  

When it came to remembering their passwords, 50% of those surveyed said they had committed all their passwords to memory. A third of respondents said they wrote their passwords down to keep track of them.

Asked how many times their password had been breached to their knowledge, the most common answer, given by 35% of respondents, was once or twice. While 26% said that their password had been compromised three to four times, only 3% said they had suffered a breach on ten or more occasions.