Replace your security question answers with random words you store

This guide helps you swap the true answers to your security questions (mother's maiden name, first pet, home town) for random made-up words. The new answers are saved in your password manager. You will also hide the profile details that give the old answers away. Plan on about 10 minutes per account, and 1 to 2 hours if you cover all the important ones in one sitting.

Why bother

Security questions are a back door: whoever can answer them can often reset your password. True answers are rarely secret. Your home town, family names and old photos of your dog are often on social media or people-search sites. Google's own research found that a single guess, "pizza", answered about 1 in 5 English speakers' "favourite food" question. The same research found that about 40% of English-speaking US users could not remember their own answers when they needed them. A random answer that lives in your password manager fixes both problems: nobody can look it up, and you never have to remember it.

Before you start

• Time: about 10 minutes per account.
• You need: a password manager you already use and can unlock on your phone and computer (for example 1Password, Bitwarden, Apple Passwords or Google Password Manager). You also need to be able to sign in to each account you want to fix.
• Checked on (2026-10-13): 1Password support article "Create unique answers to security questions", Bitwarden help pages "Custom Fields" and "Generator", Google Chrome help "Manage passwords in Chrome" (desktop steps), Apple's Passwords user guide (macOS 27, Tahoe 26 and Sequoia 15), Apple's archived article "Change your Apple Account security questions", and Microsoft's Windows password reset page. Facebook's menu labels change often, so treat those as a guide to what to look for.

Steps

1 List every account that has security questions

Start with the accounts that would hurt most to lose:

1. Your main email account. Whoever controls it can reset almost everything else.
2. Banks, card issuers, pension and investment accounts, and insurance.
3. Your mobile phone carrier. Taking over your number lets someone receive your text-message codes.
4. Apple, Microsoft or Google accounts, and your computer's own sign-in (see Steps 5 and 6).
5. Government, tax, health and utility accounts.
6. Older shopping, forum and travel sites.

To find the ones you have forgotten, search your email for security question, secret question and memorable word. You should end up with a short list, most important first. Work down it in that order.

2 Set up a place for the answers in your password manager

Open the saved login for the first account on your list, and get its answer field ready.

• 1Password (Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android): open the Login item, select Edit, then Add More > Security Questions. On iPhone you may need to scroll down to see Add More. On the web, sign in at 1Password.com and select View vault items first. You should see a new Security Questions section with a question box and an answer box.
• Bitwarden (web app, desktop, browser extension, mobile): open the item, choose Edit, scroll to Custom Fields, choose the field type Hidden, then select New custom field. Use the question as the Name, for example First pet. A Hidden field stays masked on screen.
• Google Password Manager (Chrome on a computer): select More > Passwords and autofill > Google Password Manager, choose the saved password, select Edit and use the note box. On Android and iPhone, open the saved password and tap Edit. Menu names there may differ slightly.
• Apple Passwords (iPhone, iPad, Mac): open the Passwords app, go to All, select the account, then Edit, and look for the Notes field. Apple's guide doesn't describe notes, so the label may vary by version.

In a notes field, write the question and answer on one line, like First pet: <answer>. That way you know which answer goes with which question.