'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
How to use Bitwarden Identities to secure your most sensitive data
Bitwarden allows you to store all types of information. You can store the obvious username/password entries, as well as secure notes, and credit cards. All of that data is encrypted in your vault until you unlock it with either your master password, PIN, or biometric (such as via a fingerprint scanner or facial recognition).
But there's another type of entry you can add to the Bitwarden password manager and it's one you probably didn't even know you needed to use.
Also: The best password managers to save you from login hassle
That entry is called an Identity, which can include a name, contact information, address, Social Security number, passport number, license number, email, notes, custom fields, and more. As you can see, some of those bits of information are particularly sensitive-- particularly Social Security and passport numbers.
You wouldn't want to save those details in a standard contact manager, where anyone who has access to your desktop or laptop could view the information. With a Social Security number in the hands of the wrong person, bad things could happen.
So, if you need to keep particularly sensitive details about a person, you'll want to use Bitwarden's Identities feature. However, even when using Identities, if you want to add Social Security and passport numbers, you might take an extra step to hide them from plain sight. (I'll show you how.)
Let's see how to create an identity.
How to use Bitwarden Identities to secure sensitive data
What you'll need: The only thing you'll need is a valid Bitwarden account. Since Identities is part of the core functionality, this feature works with both the free and paid plans. I'll demonstrate this on the desktop app, but it works with the mobile and web versions in the same way.
1. Open Bitwarden
The first thing to do is open Bitwarden and unlock your vault. With the vault unlocked, click + near the bottom center to create a new item.
2. Create a new identity
In the right pane, select Identity from the Type drop-down, which will change all of the available fields to match the type of item you're creating. Fill out all of the necessary information. If you want to better protect the Social Security and passport numbers, don't fill them in their respective text areas (we'll create them as custom fields).
Also: Bitwarden rolls out passkeys management to all users, including free accounts
3. Add a custom field for the Social Security number
Scroll down until you see the Custom Fields section. From the drop-down, select Hidden and then click +. You can then type Social Security Number in the Name field and the person's Social Security number in the Value field.
4. Enable Password Re-prompt
Before you save the identity, scroll up until you see the Master Password Re-prompt option, Click the checkbox to enable this. After taking care of that, make sure you've filled out everything necessary for the identity and then click the save icon at the bottom.
Also: How to enable Bitwarden biometric unlock
Congratulations, you've just created your first Bitwarden Identity. Use these for contacts that require the storing of sensitive information that you don't want to make available to a standard contact app and you'll better protect those identities from ne'er do wells.