Guest vs. Family Member?

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alex_moss
alex_moss
Community Member

We'd like to give access to a shared vault on our Families account to one of our (grown) kids. She doesn't want to set up her own account and store her own personal info there. Our goal: we have a number of accounts for various other things, we want to give her access without texting or emailing login info back and forth. We'd prefer that she access our shared passwords through 1PW rather than keeping copies elsewhere (less securely). I think it's best for her to be a guest on our account. If she ever wants to keep her own info in 1PW, we'll set her up as a family member.

  1. Does that make sense? Is there a reason she needs her own 1PW account if she only wants access to some of our shared passwords?

  2. What does a guest need to do? Do they need a 1Password account? Do they need to install and use 1PW apps? Or can do they securely login via the 1PW website as a guest, once we invite them and they accept?

Thanks for your insight.
Alex


1Password Version: 7.3.712
Extension Version: 4.7.5.90
OS Version: Windows 10 Pro 1809
Sync Type: Not Provided
Referrer: forum-search:guests

Comments

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @alex_moss: Thanks for asking! I think there may be some confusion about guests. They're exactly the same as a "regular" family member except they only have access to a single vault which you explicitly share with them. Otherwise, each person you invite -- guest or not -- will have their own 1Password account with a Master Password they choose, which allows them to access it across all their devices by signing in. Honestly, a "regular" family member may be better. It is not possible to "convert" a guest later (or vice versa), and the only reason to use a guest in a situation like that would be for a person who needs you to manage their data for them -- like a much younger child. Even if they don't use their Private vault now, inviting your grown kids as "regular" family members gets them that in case they ever want to use it in addition to any other vaults shared with them. Something to consider, and let me know if you have any other questions. :)

  • alex_moss
    alex_moss
    Community Member
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    That's clearer, thanks much -- though I was hoping for a different answer. I don't think she's going to set up an account at the moment, it feels daunting to her (in spite of my assurances). I don't want to force the issue, I simply want to share a few passwords securely.

    Point being: I was hoping there was a way to give her "view access" to a limited number of shared logins, without creating an account -- parallel to the functionality in Dropbox that lets us sends links to specific files to non-users without giving them broader access to other files and folders. (Yes, I understand that Dropbox has various security issues, I'm not wanting 1PW to make those exact compromises. Point being: that feature is similar to what I'm looking for here.) It sounds like that's not really possible, and the right way to do it w/ 1PW is to create an account, if and when she's ready. That makes sense, though it doesn't accomplish what we were hoping for, i.e. very limited access without an account. At least it's clear.

    Meantime, we'll have to figure out a different way to share passwords with non-1PW users who are not in the same geography. Plan B: we've been doing that verbally, b/c we don't want to share via text or email. If you have any further suggestions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, we'll stick with our current Plan B.

    Thanks again for the quick and clear response.
    Alex

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    was hoping there was a way to give her "view access" to a limited number of shared logins, without creating an account

    @alex_moss: There is not. In order to be secure, the vault needs to be encrypted; and without a separate account, that would mean with your Master Password, which you would then need to tell her in order for her to access it.

    Meantime, we'll have to figure out a different way to share passwords with non-1PW users who are not in the same geography. Plan B: we've been doing that verbally, b/c we don't want to share via text or email. If you have any further suggestions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, we'll stick with our current Plan B.

    That's really not something we can recommend. I'd suggest thinking about this differently: for your daughter (or any other person you want to share with), you as the Organizer do most of the work, as far as inviting them, managing vault access, etc. They really only need to show up and do the setup once, creating a Master Password for it. With you as the Organizer, you can help them recover their account if they get locked out. But this allows you to compartmentalize things and share only what is necessary...but perhaps more importantly, if more needs to be shared later, you've already got everything in place and the family member needs to do zero work the next time around: anything you share with them will automatically show up on any devices where they are signed in. Something to consider.

  • alex_moss
    alex_moss
    Community Member
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    @brenty Thank you for the further clarification. I agree with you across the board as I think about it further. Having said that, she's independent, it's not my decision, and I'm trying to accommodate and respect her prefs, while still being able to maintain security. That's not a strictly technical question of course...but very little in this world is strictly technical, eh? Thanks again, again.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni
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    On behalf of brenty, you are welcome! If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out anytime.

    Have a wonderful day :)

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