Two endings this whole set has been walking towards: your last day on a shared machine, and the day a machine leaves your hands. Both are where profile privacy is actually won or lost — here is the honest checklist and the honest test of every lock.
Everything before this page assumed the PC stays in your life. This one is for when it does not — or when the person across the desk is genuinely technical. We run the determined snoop test against every lock in the set, show you the one that survives each round, and start with the step people forget entirely: your sync is still signed in.
When you stop using a computer — a sold laptop, a returned office PC, a relative's machine you used for a month — the biggest leak is not the local profile. It is sync. While your Google account stays signed into Chrome there, that PC keeps a live copy of your bookmarks, history and saved passwords, and keeps receiving new ones.
Suppose someone technical gets your old PC and goes looking. Your Chrome profile is a folder of ordinary files. History, cookies and bookmarks are database files that free tools read easily. Saved passwords are encrypted — but the encryption key is guarded by your Windows account, so the passwords hold up exactly as long as the account does.
Notice what this means: an extension lock scores zero in this test, because the snoop never opens Chrome at all. The layers that survive are the account boundary and the disk boundary.
Pull the drive out of a PC and plug it into another, and Windows account permissions can be walked around — unless the disk itself is encrypted. BitLocker (or Device Encryption on many Windows 11 laptops) scrambles the whole drive, so a removed disk reads as noise without your key.
Casual eyes around a shared desk — the extension lock is enough. A shared PC used daily — add separate Windows accounts and Win + L. A laptop that travels, or a machine you are giving away — you need the sync sign-out plus BitLocker level, and for a machine leaving your life entirely, a proper reset after removing your data. Match the lock to the threat and none of this needs to be complicated — but do not let a two-minute extension pose as the whole ladder.
The full profile lock setup on screen — extension install, password set and the live test.
▶️ Watch Full VideoProbably yes — signing out stops sync but the local profile folder can remain. If the buyer is technical, treat your saved passwords from that period as exposed: change the key ones (email first, then banking) and check your Google account's signed-in devices. For the next machine, remove the profile or reset the PC fully before it leaves.
No. BitLocker protects the disk when it is off or removed — it decrypts transparently while Windows runs. Protection for a running PC comes from the account lock and screen lock. The two systems guard different moments, which is why serious setups use both.
Yes. Chrome's History is a standard database file, and free viewers for it are common technician tools. This is the plain mechanical reason an extension lock cannot be the only protection against a technical person with your Windows session or your disk.