<< If you like the idea of keeping your bookmarks, passwords, apps, and other data synced between Chrome browsers, but you're wary of Google (or others) getting access to your web life, the latest Chrome dev release syncs data with a passphrase.

Open up Chrome's options, head to the Personal Stuff tab, then click "Customize" in the Sync field. Note the new presence of a new "Encryption" tab at the top of the pop-out window: it's where you set up your passphrase. Once you set it, nobody can sync your data to another instance of Chrome without your passphrase, and Google itself will supposedly be unable to grab it, because the company states the passphrase is stored encrypted on their servers, too. >>

http://lifehacker.com/5662970/add-an-extra-layer-of-security-to-chrome-syncing-with-a-passphrase

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2010/10/chrome_sync_encryption.png

> the company states the passphrase is stored encrypted
> on their servers, too

That's what the post on LifeHacker says, but it's not what Google says.

Google says that the passphrase never leaves your computer (and indeed there's no reason why it should), and that _passwords_ (i.e. passwords to website logins that are "remembered" by the browser) are stored encrypted on Google servers.