BlackBerry app review: Password Keeper

Password Keeper is a free application that comes pre-installed on many BlackBerries, including the Curve, Bold, Tour and other models. It can typically be found in the Applications folder and it is designed to allow you to store and organize passwords that you use for websites so that you don't have to remember them all. It can also be used to save PINs, account numbers or anything else that you don't want to have to remember but you don't want anyone else to be able to see.

The first time you use Password Keeper, you can set up a password for the application, so that if someone else gets a hold of your BlackBerry, if they don't know your password, they can't see any of the information that you have saved in the application. This password protects your other passwords and data and even if you leave the program running and switch to another application, you'll be asked to re-enter the password when you come back to Password Keeper.

If you're familiar with using other BlackBerry apps and features such as Tasks, Calendar, or MemoPad, Password Keeper will be simple to use. The basic interface is the same and all of the options can be accessed from within the program by pressing the Menu button (on the Tour, this will be the button with the seven dots to the left of the trackball).

You can easily set up passwords for new websites and the program allows you to store a title for that entry, the website address, your user name, password and additional notes. One nice feature of the program is the ability to change any of the labels, so in addition to storing website passwords, you could store PINs and other information.

The security settings of the program can be customized as well, so you can specify how many attempts you have to enter your password before the program locks you out. You can also use the random password feature to generate a random password for a website and you can tell it whether to include numbers, letters and/or symbols, as well as how long to make the password.

Password Keeper is a good free password vault program. There are more sophisticated programs you can download, many of which cost money, but Password Keeper should be sufficient for most users' needs, and it's easy to use and set up.

(Originally published on Helium.com, August 2011)