Chrome shows passwords

This is really very very stupid on your part if you are letting chrome save your password. Go to

Settings->Options->Minor Tweaks->Show Saved Passwords

Select the website name and click Show Password, and there your are. Your password is shown as plain text! (Of course it should be plain text if it wants to show you the password in readable format. Plain text was just an intensifier to show my disbelief ;).

The same functionality (you can read a-hole-in-security as well,) is also available on FireFox 3.0. Go to

Tools->Options->Security->Passwords->Saved Passwords

But there is Master Password to protect anyone else from seeing the list. If you have not yet checked Use a master password then pray God & leave to mercy of intruder. [By intruder I mean anyone who has access to your machine with your login credentials and with whom you do not want to share your passwords. It can be your roommate, colleague, friend..... or anyone, not necessarily a hacker. ]

If you let your browser save your passwords (which is indeed helpful, given there are tons of site you have registered to), I strongly recommend using a Master Password which is, actually, a password for all passwords. Before auto-filling any of your saved passwords, FireFox asks you to enter the Master Password. So all you have to remember just one password, the Master Password. And the intruder cannot access site using your password-to-that-site unless s/he knows your Master Password.

Chrome simply doesn't have any provision of Master Password. This implies anyone who can open the chrome on your machine (with your OS login) can see all of your saved passwords with just few clicks. Pretty straight forward and easy. So don't ever leave your machine unlocked if you are trusting chrome to keep your passwords safe because it assumes you keep you machine safe :)