Safari vs Edge Password Security: Which Browser Protects You Better?

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1:04Welcome back everyone. Today we're looking at something that touches all of us every single day. Browse a password manager's. Specifically, we're comparing Safari and Microsoft Edge to see which one actually keeps your password safer. And our guest today has been deep in the research on this. So let's jump right in. When people think about password security, they often assume all browses are pretty much the same. But that's not really the case, is it? Right exactly. It's easy to think that way. But Safari and Edge have fundamentally different approaches to protecting your passwords. Both use strong encryption, AES 256, which is the gold standard. But the real difference is in how they manage the keys that unlock that encryption and where those keys are stored. Okay. So same lock, different key management. Can you break that down a bit? Sure. Apple Safari relies heavily on hardware back security. Every time you need a password, the system uses something called the secure enclave, a dedicated chip on your iPhone,

2:10iPad or Mac to decrypt it. That chip is isolated from the main processor. So even if malware gets onto your device, it can't easily access your passwords. Microsoft Edge on Windows, on the other hand, uses something called the data protection API or DPAPI. It ties your password encryption to your Windows login credentials. So with Edge, if someone gets into your Windows account, they could potentially get your passwords too. Exactly. That's the risk. If malware runs with your user permissions, it can request encryption through DPAPI. Microsoft compensates with additional defenses like smart screen and sandboxing, but it's still a different threat model than Apple's hardware isolation. Interesting. So Apple's approach is more locked down at the hardware level. What about biometric authentication? Both browsers use Face ID, Touch ID or Windows Hello, right? They do, but again, the implementation differs. With Safari biometric authentication goes beyond simply checking

3:16your face or fingerprint. It's actually authorizing the secure enclave to release the specific key for that password. It's a cryptographic step, not only a verification step. Microsoft's Windows Hello also uses hardware, specifically the trusted platform module or TPM. But the frequency and binding of those checks can vary depending on your settings. So Apple's tying the biometric directly into the decryption process. That's clever. Now, one thing I know people worry about is whether their passwords have been leaked in a data breach. Both browsers offer some kind of monitoring for that, right? They do. And this is where things get really cool from a privacy standpoint. Microsoft's password monitor uses something called homomorphic encryption. Essentially your browser encrypts your password and sends that encrypted version to Microsoft servers. The servers check it against the list of breach passwords without ever decrypting it. So Microsoft never actually sees your

4:16password. Wait, they can check if it's been breached without knowing what it is. That sounds almost like magic. It kind of is. It's advanced cryptography. Apple takes a different route with their security recommendations feature. They use a privacy preserving cryptographic private set intersection protocol. Your device sends only a short prefix of your passwords hash to Apple servers. The servers send back all the breach passwords that match that prefix and your device checks locally to see if yours is in that list. So Apple never gets the full hash. Make sense. Both approaches keep your actual password private just in different ways. That point about privacy preserving methods sets up our next piece, syncing passwords across devices. But first, a quick word from our sponsor. If you're trying to handle online security but feel overwhelmed by technical jargon, tech ed publishers is here to help. We create clear, easy to follow guides on technology and

5:19cybersecurity designed for everyday people who want practical steps to stay safe online. No tech background required. Our mission is to make reliable tech education accessible to everyone from busy professionals to parents and older adults. Learn more at techedpublishers.com. Picking up on those privacy preserving methods, how do Safari and Edge handle syncing your passwords across multiple devices without exposing them? Great question. Both offer end-to-end encrypted syncing, but their cloud architectures differ. Apple's iCloud Keychain uses a circle of trust model. When you add a new device, it has to be approved by an existing one, or you use a recovery code. The encryption keys are stored in Apple's hardware security modules, which are physically tamper-proof. Microsoft recently upgraded their passkey syncing. Passkeys are protected by a pin or biometric u-set, which is required to unlock your passkey on a device.

6:19While Microsoft emphasizes secure cloud storage and end-to-end encryption for synced passkeys, the decryption of these synced passkeys primarily occurs on your trusted devices. I see, go on. So both are secure, but Apple's more about device-to-device trust and Microsoft's using a pin-based approach with cloud sync, and that brings us to passkeys, which both browsers support. Passkeys are based on phyto-two standards and eliminate the shared secret problem that passwords have. With a passkey, your device stores a private key that never leaves it, and the website only gets a public key. Even if the website is breached, attackers can't steal your passkey. That's a big shift from traditional passwords. Have you ever wondered how long it'll take before passkeys become the default for most of us? It's definitely happening faster than people think. Microsoft made passkeys the default for new accounts starting in May 2025. Apple's been integrating them deeply into iCloud keychain, so they sync across all your Apple

7:24devices with ease. The challenges cross-platform use. Apple's passkey support is mostly within their ecosystem, though there's an iCloud for Windows app. Microsoft's taking a more open approach. They're working on syncing passkeys across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and they even allow third-party password managers to integrate with Windows Hello. So if you're all in on Apple devices, Safari's probably the smoother experience, but if you use multiple platforms, Edge gives you more flexibility. Exactly, and for businesses, that flexibility matters even more. Microsoft Edge for business has features like secure password deployment, where IT admins can push encrypted shared passwords to specific user groups. Employees can use those passwords with autofill, but they can't view, edit, or export them. That's tied to their work identity through Microsoft's Entra ID. Apple's shared password groups are more family-oriented. You can share passwords with trusted contacts, but there's no centralized admin control. That makes sense for different audiences. I'm

8:30curious, have you had any personal experience where one of these systems really saved you? Oh, definitely. A few months back, I got an alert from Safari that one of my passwords had shown up in a data breach. I hadn't even heard about the breach yet, but the security recommendations feature flagged it immediately. I changed that password in under a minute, and it turned out the site had been compromised days earlier. That early warning probably saved me from account takeover. That's exactly the kind of thing that makes these tools so valuable. So what's the bottom line here? If someone's listening and trying to decide which browser to trust with their passwords, what should they consider? Well, if you're using Apple hardware exclusively, Safari and iCloud Keychain offer the most comprehensive security. The hardware back secure enclave and the zero-knowledge recovery model are hard to beat. But if you work across multiple devices or need enterprise features, Microsoft Edge is the stronger choice. The homomorphic encryption

9:33for breach detection, the secure passkey syncing, and the enterprise management tools are all top notch. And honestly, both are light years ahead of reusing passwords or writing them down, which let's be honest, is the digital equivalent of leaving your house key under the door mat. Ha, I like that analogy. That's the real takeaway, isn't it? Whether you choose Safari or Edge, using a built-in password manager and enabling biometric authentication puts you in a much safer position. In other words, you're protecting yourself way better than most people online, and moving to pass keys when you can. That's where we're all headed. Absolutely, the cryptographic superiority of pass keys over traditional passwords reduces your risk dramatically. So to everyone listening, pick the browser that fits your devices and habits, enable the security features, and definitely start using pass keys wherever they're supported. Perfect advice to wrap on. Thanks so much for breaking this down with us today.

10:38It's been really enlightening. Guys, it's no use putting it off. The best time for an underwear refreshes now. Tommy John, underwear is designed for a perfect fit that stays put all day. There's zero shape thanks to four times more stretch than competing brands, and their innovative horizontal quick-drop fly is a game-changer. With over 30 million pairs sold, there are thousands of men out there more comfortable than you. Don't settle for less. Go to TommyJohn.com today for 25% off your first order with Code Comfort. That's TommyJohn.com Code Comfort. Tommy John. Comfort. Perfected. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it,

11:43asking where this is all going to come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts.