Sharing passwords with your team or family

Ideally, everyone has their own account with their own password. But sometimes you share a login, such as the online shop, the bank account or the company's social media. Never share it by email, chat or a spreadsheet. Use a shared vault instead. You can read why in the lesson Choosing and using password managers of the Safe online course.

Proton Pass and 1Password both work with vaults. A vault is a folder of items. For example, you create a vault Online shop, a vault Finance and a vault Social media. For each vault, you decide who has access.

What can you do where?

In Proton Pass: sharing a vault

1. Create a new vault in the extension or the app and give it a clear name. Put the items you want to share in it.
2. Open the list of vaults. Click the three dots next to the vault and choose Share.
3. Enter the email address of the person you want to share with and continue.
4. Choose what that person can do: Viewer (view and use only), Editor (also add and change items) or Admin (also give others access).
5. Send the invitation. If the other person doesn't have a Proton account yet, they'll receive an email to create one for free.

You can see and change who has access to a vault with Manage access. If someone shares a single item with you, you'll find it under Shared with me. What you share with others is under Shared by me.

Please note: A shared vault belongs to its owner. If the owner deletes their Proton account, the vault is gone for everyone. So keep business logins in a vault owned by someone who's staying, or transfer the vault in good time (see Proton Pass and 1Password for your business).

In 1Password: a shared vault

With Families, Teams or Business, everyone has their own Private vault. It's just for you and can't be shared. To share, you create an extra vault.

1. Sign in at my.1password.eu and choose New Vault. In the app on your computer, click the plus button in the sidebar. Give the vault a name.
2. Put the items you want to share in that vault.
3. On the website, choose Share Vault for the vault, or in the app right-click the vault and choose Manage Access.
4. Choose the people from your family or team who may have access and save.
5. Set what each person can do. By default, someone can view, copy, create and edit items. Only people who can manage the vault can rename or delete it.

You invite someone to your family or team at my.1password.eu under People. In a family, the family organiser does this.

Passing something on once

Do you need to give someone a password just once, for example a web developer? Don't use email. Use a link that expires automatically.

• Proton Pass: create a secure link for the item. You choose how long it works and how often it can be opened. This is included in the paid plans.
• 1Password: open the item, choose Share, set when the link expires and whether only specific email addresses can open it. Then choose Copy Link. The recipient can view and copy the item until the link expires. If you change the item, create a new link.

Only send such a link to the person who needs it. Change the password once the job is done.

When someone leaves

1. Remove them from the shared vault. In Proton Pass via Manage access, in 1Password via Manage Access and Remove from Vault.
2. Change the passwords they could see. Removing them from the vault isn't enough: they may have copied or saved them.
3. At WebOké: also remove their own logins, for example in Nextcloud (see A colleague leaves: safely taking over files, calendar and shared folders).

If you use a business plan, also read Proton Pass and 1Password for your business.