• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 8, 2025

Do you know your password for, say, Instagram? It can be infuriating to contend with that when you’re trying to access something, there or elsewhere, and the result can be a barrage of emails with codes and reset links. 

The whole system is also insecure, given the number of data breaches that include passwords and email IPs, but let’s save that argument for another day. A new report from Heepsy shows what apparently are the most frustrating social sites. 

The “winner” in this competition is YouTube -- which pulls 358,000 password-related searches per 100,000 users, resulting in a total of 1.4 billion. Of course, its has 3.9 billion monthly active users.  

Second is Facebook, which generates 282,000 password-recovery searches per 100,000 users, for an average of 3.4 million password resents per year. Of course, Facebook has only 2.1 billion active users.  

The report focuses on social sites., where the main issue presumably will be access. Password recovery may be more frustrating on ecommerce sites, recurring subscription platforms and other places where money is being exchanged. 

And, yes, security is an issue. 

“We’ve reached a tipping point,” says Tony Perez, founder and CEO of NetLok. “Between rising costs from password resets and the growing threat of deepfakes and credential theft, the old model just doesn’t cut it anymore.”

Fair enough. But here are the remaining top ten social sites in Heepsy’s listing:

• Pinterest sees 20,045 searches per 100,000 users per month, for an average of 2.4 resets a year. It has 417 million active users.  
• X, which has 909 million monthly users, sees 8,472 searches per 100,000, for one reset per year.
• Instagram receives 5,894 searches per 100,000 users for 0.7 resets yearly. It has 1.6 billion users.
• Spotify generates 4,236 searches per 100,000, for an average of 0.5 resets per year. Spotify has 345 million active users.  
• LinkedIn experiences 2,603 searches per 100,000, averaging 0.3 resets. It has 386 million active users. 
• Twitch, which boasts 175 million actives, pulls 2,288 searches out of 100,000 users.  
• Line counts 1,914 searches per 100,000, for an average of 0.2 resets per year. Its active user total is 178 million.  
• Discord has 209 million active users, who conduct 1,032 searches per 100,000. This averages 0.1 resets per year.