Why You Should Avoid Using Auto-Login for Your Accounts

It can seem like a bit of an unnecessary hassle to enter a password every time you use an app or go to your favorite website. For that reason, people have gotten used to using the auto-login feature, which allows you to bypass that pesky stage and load a page immediately that requires a password. Although it’s a big time saver, the truth is it might not be as safe as you think.

The Issues With Auto-Login
Auto-login may save you time and energy, but it can also save thieves or hackers time and energy. If you have pretty much everything you use on an active basis set to auto-login, and if someone else gets access to your phone itself, they will have immediate access to everything you do. It can be a running scale, obviously — they might not be able to wreak havoc with access to your favorite gaming apps, but if they’re able to get into more secure areas, such as your email or banking information, your personal information is in jeopardy.

Read More: How to Make Losing Your Phone Less Scary

Okay, so you’ll just be more careful. You won’t leave your phone out, and you won’t use auto-login for those really important accounts. But unfortunately, things can still go awry. Even if someone doesn’t physically get their hands on your phone or computer, they can still use malware to convince your computer that they’re an administrator, and from there it’ll be easy to get access to your passwords.

Furthermore, though it is usually advised against, people tend to reuse passwords for multiple accounts. So while it may not seem like a big deal if someone gets a password to your favorite time-killing app, you may have forgotten of many old auto-logins that have the same password you use for your email.

What are the lines of defense? As mentioned above, it’s smart to reaffirm your use of different passwords each and every time a password is required. You should also use password protection programs and lock features to protect your information. There are more secure ways to auto-login, too.

Finally, if no one is able to access your phone, it won’t matter how weak your password protection is (though, again, that’s not an excuse to have bad password protection).