Readers reply: Experts say we should use passkeys, but can a smartphone pin really be safer than a password?

<p>The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts</p><ul><li><p>This week’s question: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/14/ripen-at-home-fruit-supermarkets">Is ‘ripen at home’ fruit the supermarkets’ idea of a joke?</a></p><p></p></li></ul><p>I’ve been struggling to get my head around the idea that a passkey, which can be a pin on your phone, or facial recognition, can be safer than using a complicated password and two-factor authentication.</p><p>I get that having something unique to your device, not stored on a company’s server, is unphishable and less hackable by cybercrims, but what if your phone is nicked and someone guesses the password? And what if you lose your phone?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/14/readers-reply-experts-say-we-should-use-passkeys-but-can-a-smartphone-pin-really-be-safer-than-a-password">Continue reading...</a>