Sharing passwords, she noted, feels forbidden because it is generally discouraged by adults and involves vulnerability.

Think about it: engineers sharing passwords, writing them in notepad files, on Post-its.

For example, dozens of system administrators may share passwords for privileged accounts on thousands of devices.

Union Trust once filed suit against an aggregator, Paytrust, to keep it from asking bank clients to share their online identification and passwords.

Teenagers Sharing Passwords as Show of Affection Go to Complete List

However, in the case of a computer system, a password is usually stored for each user account, thus making all access traceable (save, of course, in the case of users sharing passwords).

"It's a sign of trust," Tiffany Carandang, a high school senior in San Francisco, said of the decision she and her boyfriend made several months ago to share passwords for e-mail and Facebook.

Many spouses and partners of job seekers are delving into their own alumni and professional databases for contacts and quietly sharing company-supplied passwords to electronic resources, according to numerous job seekers and career counselors.

While the law punishes people for sharing passwords, it is really aimed at those sharing and selling their passwords in large quantities- up to $500 in theft resulting in a misdemeanor, and anything else after that a felony.