Your password, encryption key and recovery

Your synced data is encrypted with an account key that is created on your computer the first time you sign in. The key is protected by your password, so there is no separate passphrase, and the Browz server never holds it unprotected. Browz shows a recovery key once at that first sign-in: write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

Changing your password in the app keeps your data. The key is re-protected under the new password and your other computers are signed out. This computer must hold the key, so sign in on it first if it asks.

1. After a password reset by email, a computer that still holds the key keeps working without asking anything.
2. Otherwise the computer says your synced data is locked. In Settings, Account and appearance, choose Use recovery key and enter it. A new recovery key is shown once; the old one stops working.
3. In a workspace, the owner's Browz holds a copy of your key. Choose Ask my workspace owner: you read a code to the owner, and the owner reads one back to you, which you type in. The owner's Browz must be online. If a code does not match, stop and ask again.
4. With neither, choose Start over. Settings, fingerprints, proxies and folders on this computer are kept and encrypted again; synced browser sessions, and records only the server held, cannot be opened again.

When you join a workspace, your Browz gives the workspace owner's Browz a copy of your account key, encrypted to the owner's own key. This is owner escrow. It means the owner can recover you after a password reset, and it means the owner's computer can decrypt everything you sync with this account, not only the profiles you share in the workspace. That matches how the owner sees every member's profiles, as in other multi-profile browsers. The Browz server cannot read your data or the owner's copy of your key. Leaving the workspace deletes its copy from the server, but not a copy the owner's computer already holds. If you do not want a workspace owner to read your data, use a separate account for that workspace.

An account created before end-to-end encryption is upgraded at its next sign-in. Browz asks first whether to send your password once to do it, because it cannot tell an old account from a wrong password: check the password before you agree.

1. the server says this account uses the old sign-in, but this device has signed in to it with a derived key before: Browz will not send your password. The server may be outdated or not the real one. Contact your administrator.
2. your synced data is still locked with your old sync passphrase: enter that passphrase once in Settings, Account and appearance. After that your password is used.
3. This password has appeared in a known data breach: choose a different password.
4. We cannot check this password against known breaches right now: try again in a minute.
5. your current password is not correct, or that password does not unlock this account's key: enter the password again.

Accounts, sign-in and profile sync →

Still stuck? Export diagnostics and contact support.