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Every modern web browser has tools for tracking the passwords you use with secure online services. Those features are often turned on by default, which means you probably have a random collection of passwords saved in the cloud along with your bookmarks and settings for your default browser.
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Those built-in utilities might have been good enough for an earlier era, but they aren't good enough for our complex, multi-platform world. (For more on the pros and cons of those built-in tools, see "Apple, Google, and Microsoft offer free password managers - but should you use them?")
For most people, the correct option is to switch to a third-party password manager and shut down all those built-in password features in the browsers and mobile devices you use. Why? Third-party password managers are built to work everywhere, with a full set of features that are the same (or nearly so) across every device.
After you make that switch, the passwords you saved previously are left behind in a cloud service you no longer use. If you regularly switch between browsers (Chrome on your Mac or Windows PC, Safari on your iPhone), you might even have multiple sets of saved passwords scattered across multiple clouds.
It's time to clean up that mess.
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If you're no longer using a password manager, it's prudent to track down those outdated saved passwords and delete them from the cloud. I've studied each of the four leading browsers: Google Chrome, Apple's Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. Here's how to find the password management settings for each one, export any saved passwords to a safe place, and then turn off the feature. As a final step, I explain how to purge saved passwords and stop syncing.
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