Add password protected bookmarks to Google Chrome

If your computer is used by multiple users, you sometimes may want to protect "sensitive" data from the prying eyes of others. While it is recommended to use user profiles, it is quite common that a family uses a single profile for all of its work on the computer for instance.

Bookmarks are usually not the top priority when it comes to protecting data from other users who have access to a system, but if you want to make sure that a couple of bookmarks are not accessible to other users or people walking by you may want to give a solution like Secure Bookmarks for Google Chrome a trial run.

The extension adds an icon to Chrome's address bar after installation. The first thing you need to do after installation is to set a password to protect the data. Once that is out of the way you can start adding websites to the storage with a click on the icon and the selection of create new bookmark.

The program adds the website you are currently on by default which you can modify manually if you want. You can also edit any existing bookmark at any time.

You may have noticed by now that the extension ignores the current bookmarks. An import is missing unfortunately which may mean that you need to open existing bookmarks in Chrome again to add them to the secure bookmarks extension.

To open an existing bookmark, simply left-click on the icon and then on the bookmark. This opens it in the same tab, if you prefer it to open in a new tab, hold down the Ctrl-key while you click on the bookmark.

The order of bookmarks can be ordered via drag and drop but there is no option to use folders to sort bookmarks. The options let you export and import bookmarks to the browser, and change the password.

The main menu has an option to clear all bookmarks at once and to sign out which you can do to block access to the bookmarks while Chrome is open. You are automatically signed out when the browser is closed.

Responses so far:

1. Paul B. says:

   February 6, 2013 at 3:53 pm

   Another, and cross-browser, way to do this is to save the site to LastPass rather than the browser.

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     February 6, 2013 at 5:18 pm

     Interesting idea Paul, how easily accessible are those bookmarks then?

     Reply
     • Paul B. says:

       February 6, 2013 at 5:30 pm

       Quite accessible. I use the compact LP toolbar, which is just an icon. You go there, click Sites, and you can make a folder for Protected. Depending on your password scheme for LastPass, you can also require a separate login for any site. Using the full LP toolbar would probably be one less click, but the cost of screen space is too high for me.

       Also, with LP you can import your sites, and enjoy strong cross-browser cross-machine, cross-platform compatibility.You can also store secure notes.
     • Martin Brinkmann says:

       February 6, 2013 at 7:01 pm

       Thanks Paul.
2. Anders says:

   February 7, 2013 at 2:19 pm

   The enginuity needed to mask pr0n surfing... :)

   Reply
   • Paul B. says:

     February 7, 2013 at 4:52 pm

     Too many times, that is the case. But there are legitimate uses also.

     Reply