Around Town: Too many passwords, so little time
It started innocently enough. The online L.A. Times put up a pay wall, so I signed up for an account. The account required a password.
Then, our office had a staff meeting. We order lunch from Midori in Pasadena. Good food, free delivery. Another account. Another password.
Then, I joined the L.A. County Law Library. They gave me an account, and a password.
Almost overnight, there were accounts with the L.A. Superior Court, the U.S. District Court, the Pasadena and County libraries, Southwest Air, Hulu, AirBnB, and the New Yorker magazine.
Passwords. Passwords. Passwords.
Passwords breed like rabbits, and with each new password, there were new concerns. Each password must be different. Some must have eight characters. Others only need six. Security experts tell us not to use the same password for each account, but if you write them down in a tiny little book, what if you lose the book?
Password recovery is worse. Mother’s maiden name? First grade teacher? Lots of hackers know those things because we post that information on Facebook.
The password problem worsened this year, when we switched to credit card payments instead of writing 200 checks each month. At first, it seemed like a great idea. Credit payments were quick, reduced our administrative workload and left an electronic record.
But one morning, we woke up to 37 new accounts, each with its own password.
Back home, the growth continued. We cut the cord with Direct TV, but then subscribed to Hulu, Netflix, Sling, Pandora, and 14 Amazon Prime news apps. Is it bad to use the same password for every TV account? What’s there to hack?
Vacations loomed. How could we travel without Uber, Virgin, Hotel Tonight, Yelp, Urbanspoon and Open Table? More passwords. More Apps. More headaches.
Even the Apple App Store needs a password to download the app. Then, the Cloud has a different password.
Occasionally, I would forget a password, so I began to evaluate methods of outsourcing the password memorization function.
All of our brains have a password memorization mode. You just need to access it. Some folks pick a familiar phrase to encode by selecting the first letter from each word. The exclamation, “Gosh Darn These Stupid Passwords,” becomes “GDTSP” or “GDTSP!”
“The Dodgers will always break your heart” becomes “Tdwabyh.”
Another solution is to trust your iPhone (“tyiP!”). Of course, there was that rainy day when I asked Siri if it was raining, and she said, “No, Anita.”
Apart from the weather glitches, Siri has the mysterious ability to log me into a password protected application.
One time, I asked Siri, “Hey, Siri. What is my password?”
Siri replied, “Hey, Anita! Oh. I couldn’t possibly tell you that.”
The secret behind Facebook’s success is the “Login with Facebook” button. This ability has transformed Facebook into a de facto “single sign on” service.
Facebook remembers birthdays, then links to Jib Jab to send an online birthday greeting, then Instagram, to share the photos and “Find my Friend” for the obvious.
Amazon has the same effect. If you need pens, pencils, paper, a shirt or mascara, Amazon Prime can deliver them in two hours. Amazon stores your credit card and, unlike the gas station, Amazon doesn’t ask you for the Zip Code. Best of all, there’s only one password to remember.
We all laughed when Costco started selling coffins, but you can’t make a living from just selling books. Amazon sells books and doughnuts, office supplies and on demand movies. More stuff, fewer passwords. Even without drone delivery, Amazon is a de facto “single sign on” service.
“Single sign on” or “SSO,” allows access control of related, but independent software systems, often across several platforms, such as mobile devices, phones and desktops.
Like the self-driving car, the SSO is a necessary solution to the complexity of modern life. So many roads, maps, apps and content. So little time. Plus, the drones. Can we talk about the drones? Do they remember passwords or do they just look in your window?
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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. Follow her on Instagram @realanitabrenner, Facebook and on Twitter @anitabrenner.