# Password Managers--It's All about Trust and Transparency
## 6 Implications for Future Research  
The findings of this paper show that usability is not a major issue, it is issues with trust, transparency and security of password managers that compel non-users not to use them, while users have the same issues and concerns as well. It can be seen that password managers (cloud-based, browser-based, open source) are easy to use, yet, cloud password managers should improve their design and layout, avoid using computer jargon and reduce complexity in recovering accounts. In fact, there are dozens of password managers that have been developed by companies, while many researchers proposed password managers to solve issues related to usability and security,for example, storing passwords securely on a smartphone while decryption keys are stored in a different place [13; 14]. According to [PERSON] and [PERSON] [46], there has been no solution that encourages people to use password managers and enhances trust up until now.  
Consequently, there is a need to find a solution that bridges the gap between people (users and non-users) and password managers. We argue that trust and security concerns can be solved if password managers become more transparent and show people what is happening to their stored passwords. Improving transparency in password managers can facilitate understanding, allowing people to interact with the system can help to motivate them to start using a password manager and enhance their trust, because when something is visible, people will realize how trustworthy it is. In our future work, we intend to investigate the impact of improving the transparency of password managers.  
**Limitations**: The usability test and interview study (Section 4.2) were conducted at a university (small demographic) with the vast majority of participants being students. However, the study was extended by conducting an online questionnaire (Section 4.3) to include more participants, both users and non-users, with difference education levels and broader demographics. Also, the usability test only focused on LastPass; as a result, user participants in the questionnaire were asked to answer a set of questions based on the types of password managers they use. For the heuristic evaluation (Section 4.1), we evaluated three cloud-based password managers because they have many features, functions and user interfaces that can be tested.  
Methodology, F.A.; Formal analysis, F.A.; Investigation, F.A.; Resources, F.A.; Writing--original draft F.A.; Supervision, G.T. and P.R.; Review and editing, G.T. and P.R.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
The researcher [PERSON] (F.A.) is funded by Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia.  
The authors would like to thank the 30 participants who took part in the usability test and interview study, as well as the 247 anonymous participants who completed the online questionnaire study.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.  
The usability test, interview study and online questionnaire were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, UK.  
Appendix A Heuristic Evaluation Results of Three Cloud-Based Password Managers (LastPass, Dashlane, Keeper)