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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

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ceejayoz

> Do they work on all platforms (Linux, Windows, Android, MacOX and IOS)?

1password works on all of those except Linux. I believe LastPass works on all.

> Do they automatically sync?

1password syncs to Dropbox.

> Can I be sure they won't be shut down and thereby leave me cut of from all my online services?

Yes, if it syncs to something like Dropbox that has a local copy.

> And what do I do when the password manager is, inevitably, broken into?

The same thing you have to currently do if you're using one password everywhere?

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1Password actually has, hidden inside the '1password.agilekeychain' folder, a file called 1Password.html, which can be opened in any modern browser. So you can actually get at your passwords from a Linux machine by opening this .html file and supplying your master password.

I think they call this feature "1Password Anywhere".. I'm surprised they don't talk about it more.

Yes, I love this. I store my 1Password file in Dropbox, so in a pinch, I can log into Dropbox on someone else's computer and grab any password I might need.

>> Can I be sure they won't be shut down and thereby leave me cut of from all my online services?

> Yes, if it syncs to something like Dropbox that has a local copy.

This isn't necessarily true. If Dropbox was legally coerced to do so, they have the technical means to erase any file in your Dropbox from each machine as it connects to the network. I believe they already do a best-effort version of this if someone stops sharing a folder with you. All it would take is a court order to remove a file and all its backups from Dropbox's server, which might happen without even targeting you specifically because Dropbox does deduplication and doesn't encrypt your data.

This may be very unlikely, especially with an encrypted password database unique to you, but it's not impossible. At least we can presume that a general takedown or Dropbox becoming unavailable for whatever reason won't cause this to happen.

My 1password additionally makes periodic local backups of the file.

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