does quicken route your info thru Intuit?

Intuit has a privacy policy. I believe they must, by law, publish it. If they say they do not save your private info, you can trust them. But if they don't say anything, look out.

Please don't spread FUD around. Quicken does *not* transfer personal identifying information to the Intuit servers when it needs to download financial information. Quicken goes to Intuit servers to obtain the web address etc. of the FI. All personal information is then sent to the FI over encrypted communications. If you upload your portfolios to quicken.com, Quicken still only stores your userid and the portfolio contents, but no other information.

And to the OP. What "history" might that be?

Regardless of Intuit's privacy policy, if you read business news there are continuing stories of private financial data being stolen or "misplaced". The fewer places your information is electronically stored the better. I see no way to guarantee that Intuit will not have access to your private data if you use their direct connections, due to the way they treat their customers and generally do business, I have zero trust that they will not be data mining their customers or worse. When using Quicken 2004 if you wish to allocate security price alerts, you have to set up a portfolio with alerts on Quicken.com instead of directly in the software as in previous versions. If you value your privacy this is a big mistake. If you wish to try Quicken again, you might pick up a copy of Quicken 2004 or earlier, then set up your accounts within Quicken without using account numbers and with account names Quicken does not recognize.

I've always disabled Quicken direct downloads and then used the download .QIF files to hard drive, then import into Quicken route. Quicken 2004 will be the last version I use due to Intuit's removal of this capability in Quicken 2005 and beyond.

Oh oh! The last time *I* said such a thing, all the Intuit lovers got on my case for being paranoid. (I actually am not slamming Intuit here, I like their product. But unlike some other posters, I'm not nieve). There are some folks that actually BELIEVE privacy statements work and everyone is honest!

Even assuming the worst, which I don't yield for one second, what possible use can Intuit have for my Bank account number and balance? It doesn't come with my home address or phone number, I doubt it has my last name anywhere.

So please tell me why Intuit would collect personal data?

do a google search on "data appending."

i need very little information from you to compile a tremendous amount of information about you. And it can come back to haunt you. Here's a recent example:

arrested because he thought it didn't matter if someone tracked his shopping habits. Charges were dropped in January, but it appears he never would've been falsely charged if he'd never used a Safeway shopping card. He could've gone to prison. So much for it not mattering who knows what you buy. Health care is another concern.

some people think they're outsmarting the stores by giving fake names... because of data appending, pay ONE time with a check or a credit card, & they will know exactly who you are and your purchase history. And guess who are creaming in their pants over that data? Health insurance companies... and given the double-digit increases each year in healthcare costs, it's hurting companies. It won't be long when your eating history might be the deciding factor between you and another equal candidate for a job. No laws against it. A guy who's buying lots of fatty foods? Might be a bad choice as an employee, could get expensive. Now that HIPAA makes it a bit more difficult to get health info, shopping habits can serve as a proxy for guesstimating someone's health.

if you think this sounds far-fetched, you haven't been paying attention to what's going on with your data.

so yeah, knowing your bank account number can open a huge can of worms when you start pulling in data from various sources. I'm sure Intuit is the lone corporate saint, huh?

What a bunch of bull.

The paranoids are trying to rule the earth. Other paranoids love your stuff, I find it disgusting.

And, by the way, I pay a lot of attention to what is going on.

This is a touchy subject and I can see why people become a bit paranoid. However, sometimes one can become so paranoid that you have to "dig a hole and crawl in". I have been using direct connect online banking for about 10 years now and have not had a single problem with information loss (as far as I can tell). I have had more problems from a laptop (belonging to the University) being stolen at UCB that had my personal data on it, than using the very convenient online access in Quicken.

Below is what Quicken help says about online privacy policy. It seems to state clearly that Intuit never has access to the information. If they are going to lie about this, they could also do much worse. They could just transmit all of the data from your Quicken file (and other info from your computer HD) over your Internet connection even if you do not use any online banking. They could even plant a backdoor on your machine so that your firewall wouldn't see the traffic as coming from Quicken.

Peter

Online Services provided by third-party financial institutions. When you enable online services from third-party financial institutions through your Quicken software, you will be asked only for the information necessary to set up your online account, such as your account number or password. The information you provide goes directly to your financial institution (even though you may enter it on a screen within Quicken). We cannot access or use this information in any manner. We encourage you to review your financial institution's privacy policy to learn more about how it collects and uses personally identifiable information.

We may measure the number of customers and frequency of usage of online account services. This information is used in the aggregate only; it does not contain any account or transaction-specific data, and it is not linked to your individual information. We also periodically receive aggregated general usage information from financial institutions or their processors, including which online services are used and the frequency of usage

I didn't intend to open a can of worms with my post. In today's business climate short term results are all that matter. Making the analyst's earnings numbers for the current quarter is management's primary concern. Good business ethics are a goal of the past. If you keep up with the investment world, you will see daily news of companies engaging in unethical and illegal behavior. My opinion is that Intuit is no better, or worse, than other corporations. Concerning customer privacy, the questions are 1.) Can they gather customer financial data?

2.) Do they?

The first answer is simple. Intuit (or any software company) writes the software, technically there are many ways to intercept data. Why would they? Data Mining is big business. Disgruntled or dishonest employees. Poorly written software with security flaws that let the bad guys in. Accidents happen. If you read the financial news, you know this frequently occurs.

The second answer is not clear. Has Intuit done it? The only people that know for sure work for Intuit and they aren't talking. Privacy Statements? Legal boiler plate is worthless. The point is spying is big business, if the capability is there, the chances are good that someone eventually will try. Hackers break into computers everyday, they may break into your computer. If you want to play it safe, don't leave data on your hard drive that a hacker could harvest if they broke into your computer. If a thief broke into your home or business and stole your computer what information would they have that would cause you problems? If you enter all the information necessary for direct download into Quicken or you set up a portfolio on Quicken.com, you increase your risk to theft. Each person has to decide whether the benefits from these activities outweigh the risks. This is not paranoia, just common sense.

For several years Intuit, and other corporations, have increasingly been trying to prod it's customers to moving financial data online. The motive is profit. Take a look at the array of services Quicken would like you to use, bill pay, credit cards, loans, credit reports, it's a long list. Compare how these services are marketed inside current versions of the software and on the Quicken site, compared to the software of 5 or 10 years ago.

Be an informed consumer. Don't stick your head in the sand and think we live in a perfect world, that corporations are our friends and are here to help us because they like us. If you are comfortable using Quicken direct download or their online services, do it. If not, don't.

One thing that makes Intuit different from the criminals that use spyware and phishing to get your information is that Intuit can be ruined (financially and criminally, I suspect) if they are discovered stealing your personal data. Once news got out, Quicken and every other product Intuit produced would be dead! Suits and criminal charges would likely be filed. The company would cease to exist fairly quickly. That is a major hit to the short term results. Of course, a disgruntled employee could probably do some damage (and hence the company has an incentive to prevent disgruntled employees from damaging the performance of the company by stealing your information). But the case of Intuit is no different than your bank, the IRS and any other institution that you have provided sensitive personal data. Sometimes (e.g. taxes with the IRS) you are compelled to provide the information. That does not mean that someone at the IRS could not sell or otherwise misuse your information. I personally have no reason to trust Intuit any less than my other financial institutions, but that could change.

So my point is, you have to trust somebody unless you want to live alone in a log cabin in the Idaho woods. Of course, the benefits must outweigh the perceived risks. For example, people drive cars in spite of the traffic fatalities. Why? Because the benefits outweigh the risks. For online banking, I believe the benefits outweigh the risks.

Just my two cents, Peter