What is a passkey?
A passkey is a cryptographic key that replaces the password. Stored on your device or in a password manager, it unlocks with your fingerprint, face or device code. Nothing to remember, nothing to type: a fraudulent site has nothing to steal, and classic phishing stops working. The topic continues in chapter 11 of my book, Vivre sans Google.
Information verified on July 13, 2026
A passkey is a key made by your device. Instead of a password to remember, the site and your phone exchange a cryptographic proof. You confirm with your fingerprint, your face or your device code, and that’s it. Like a modern car key: you don’t know the code it sends, yet it works anyway.
What does that change for you? A lot. A password can be guessed, reused on ten sites, or typed one tired evening into a fraudulent page. A passkey can’t. It never leaves your device and only answers the real site, never a copy. Phishing loses its target, since there is nothing left to type. It also pairs nicely with two-factor authentication, when it doesn’t replace it outright.
One question remains: where should you keep these keys? Save them with Google or Apple and they live inside their ecosystem. Convenient as long as you stay, painful to move the day you leave. An independent password manager keeps them portable, in the same place as your classic passwords.
Where it plays out: chapter 11 of the book reorganizes your logins and passwords outside Google, the Password managers category compares independent vaults, and the guide to moving your passwords out of Chrome sets the stage.
This topic is chapter 11 of my book
It answers these questions, among others:
- which accounts do you start with, and at what pace, to stay the course?
- are physical keys worth it, and have your passwords already leaked?
- and why is this the one project everyone wrongly puts off?
Forthcoming 22/10/2026 from Éditions Eyrolles
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Tech jargon, translated
Every week in The Spark, I break down one tech story through the privacy lens. And what you can do about it, concretely.
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