I'm Ditching Passwords For Passkeys For One Reason - And It's Not What You Think
ZDNet, Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025
Passkeys promise to replace passwords. The reality is far more confusing. But you should move to them anyway. Here's why.
ZDNET's key takeaways
- Adoption of passkeys is fragmented across sites and devices.
- Users still need passwords for recovery and new device setup.
- Phishing protection makes passkeys worth adding, despite confusion.
OK. Fine. I've finally decided to embrace passkeys. But why does it feel so icky?
As you probably know, passkeys are the tech industry's answer to The Password Problem. Unlike password data, which can be breached, phished, quished, vished, and smished, passkeys require an encrypted private key that (at least theoretically) only you have.