How websites store data When you create an account on a website, the website stores your registration details on it's SQL databases . Very few people, even within the company/website have direct access to the databases. In a naive world, the database would contain your plaintext passwords. However, since there are hackers doing SQL injection attacks to dump the database data, it's helpful to keep the password hashed/ encrypted . This would mean that even if someone has access to the table , he would see your username, email address, and hashed password, but not the plain-text password . Those who don't know about hashing may wonder how does the website check if you are typing the correct password during login, if the site itself doesn't know you password . Well, to understand that, you must understand what hashing is. You can read it up on wikipedia for a technical idea, but I'll (grossly over-)simplify it for you. Hashing is any o...