The safest way to share access to an online account with a team is to stop sharing the password at all. Share a signed-in browser profile instead: the colleague opens the account in a profile that already holds its session, with access you can limit, see and take back, while the password and 2FA stay with the account's owner.
This post looks at why shared passwords cause so much trouble, how profile sharing works as a unit of access, which roles and levels make sense for a typical team, and what happens when someone leaves.
Why shared passwords go wrong
Most teams start the same way: a spreadsheet of logins, a shared note, a password pasted into a chat "just this once". It works until it does not.
- Passwords spread and never shrink. Every person who has seen a password can keep using it. Taking access back means changing the password and telling everyone who should still have it.
- 2FA does not fit. The code goes to one phone. Either one person becomes the bottleneck for every login, or the second factor gets shared too, which defeats it.
- There is no record. When something changes in an account, nobody can say who signed in, from where, or when.
- Logins collide. Two people signing in to one account from two computers at the same moment can trip a site's security checks or overwrite each other's work.
- Sessions mix. A colleague who signs in to a client account in their everyday browser now has that client's cookies next to their own.
A password manager's sharing feature fixes some of this: it stores the password well and can share it with a group. But the colleague still receives the password, and still signs in from their own browser and device.
Profiles as the unit of access
A browser profile that holds a signed-in session is a different thing to share. The colleague does not sign in at all: they open the profile, and the account is already there, with its cookies, its proxy and its device settings. The password was typed once, by whoever owns the account.
That changes what you can control:
- What someone can do with a profile: only open it, change its settings, or share it on.
- Where it opens: on one computer at a time, so two people cannot be signed in from two places at once.
- What they can take away: whether they may export the profile's cookies, see the proxy's password, or delete the profile.
- What happened: a log of who opened, changed or shared each profile.
And taking access back is one action, with nothing for the person to keep, because they never had the password.
Roles and access levels: a practical layout
Two layers decide what a person can do: their role in the team, and the level at which each profile is shared with them.
A common layout for a team of five to twenty:
| Person | Role | Profiles shared at | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account owner or director | Owner | Manage | Holds everything, can hand ownership on |
| Team leads | Admin | Manage | Invite people, share profiles, see the log |
| Specialists | Member | Edit | Work in accounts and adjust profile settings |
| Assistants or contractors | Member | Launch | Work in accounts, change nothing |
| Clients or auditors | Viewer | View | See the profiles without opening them |
Two habits help. Share folders rather than single profiles, so a new account in a client's folder reaches the right people automatically. And give the lowest level that lets someone do their job; it is easy to raise later.
Step by step: share profiles with a team in Browz
Browz Teams is built around this model (teams).
- Create a workspace and invite people as admins, members or viewers. Seats follow your plan (pricing).
- Set each member's rights. Owners and admins can allow or block creating, deleting and sharing profiles, exporting cookies and editing proxies, and set a profile limit for each member.
- Share profiles, folders or proxies with one member or the whole workspace, at view, launch, edit or manage. Each level includes the one before, and a member's role caps it: a viewer gets at most view, a member at most edit, an admin or owner manage. The server enforces the level.
- Let people work. A colleague with launch access starts the profile and finds the account signed in. A shared profile opens on one computer at a time; anyone else sees where it is open and who has it.
- Check the activity log. Owners and admins see joins, shares, edits, launches and refused launches, with who did each.
Proxies stay private too
A shared proxy can be assigned to profiles at launch access and above, and its password stays encrypted: view access never carries it. Seeing or copying a proxy's login is a separate action that needs manage access, asks you to confirm with your account password or a profile's lock password, hides the value again after a short time, and is recorded in the activity log (team access and transfers).
When someone moves on
- Remove the member. Their access to shared profiles ends; they never held the site passwords to begin with.
- Transfer their own profiles. An owner or admin can transfer a profile, with its newest browser session, to another member. The recipient has 48 hours to accept, and the profile's proxy goes with it when the transfer includes it.
- Reassign proxies. When a proxy owner stops sharing a proxy, Browz removes its login from the profiles that used it, so they cannot start on that computer's own address by surprise.
Encrypted from end to end
Profiles, proxies and settings are encrypted on each person's device with a key that comes from their password; the server keeps only ciphertext and wrapped keys it cannot open (security). The workspace owner holds a copy of each member's account key, so the owner can recover a member who forgets their password. Members are told about this when they join. For someone outside the workspace, you can still export a profile as a passphrase-protected .browzprofile file.
From the Local API
Teams have their own routes in the Local API on your computer, so an admin can script routine changes. The workspace, member, share and transfer routes are in the OpenAPI file linked from the developers page:
GET /api/v1/account/team/workspaces/members
POST /api/v1/account/team/shares
POST /api/v1/account/team/shares/revoke
GET /api/v1/account/team/workspaces/auditA checklist for shared accounts
- Each shared account lives in one profile, signed in by its owner.
- People receive profiles, never passwords or 2FA codes.
- Folders are shared, so new profiles reach the right people.
- Everyone gets the lowest level that does the job.
- Exporting cookies and seeing proxy passwords are rights you grant on purpose.
- One person in a profile at a time.
- The activity log is checked when something looks wrong.
- Leavers are removed on their last day, and their profiles transferred.
Frequently asked questions
How do I share an account with my team without giving out the password?
Sign in once in a browser profile and share the profile, not the login. The colleague opens the profile and finds the account already signed in. You decide whether they can only open it, change it or share it on, and you can take access back at any time without changing the password.
Is sharing a login against a site's terms?
Some sites allow several people to work in one account, and many offer their own team features with separate logins, which are always the first choice where they exist. Others require each person to have their own account. Check the site's terms; sharing a profile changes how access is handled, not what the site allows.
Can two people use the same shared profile at once?
No. A shared profile opens on one computer at a time, and anyone else sees where it is open and who has it. This keeps one account from being signed in from two places at the same moment and stops two copies of the session from overwriting each other.
What happens to shared profiles when someone leaves the team?
Remove them from the workspace and their access ends at once. Profiles they created can be transferred, with their browser session, to another member, who has 48 hours to accept. Because they never held the site passwords, there is no shared password to change because they left.