Yes, I do worry about that with Quicken - mostly, just how much they know about me. For instance, to download transactions, you have to give them the name of the bank and other details. But, at least, I retain control of the password.
Yes, they were sold. But it is my understanding (misunderstanding?) that eventually, Quicken itself ended back under the control of one of its original owners. But QUicken Loans, Intuit and TurboTax is completely separate now. And, no, I do not trust any of them. I switched from TurboTax to TaxCut when it became clear TurboTax had lost their integrity. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of faith in TaxCut either -- but neither have I seen anything to raise my suspicians about them.
Read these and your suspicions will be indeed be raised:
It's not just the "free" versions that sell your data. It looks like TurboTax may actually have better policies than H&R, but there's no way I'm going to do ever do e-file when to do so means sending all your financial info to a 3rd party. TurboTax does not let you print your tax forms to your own printer without going online. Unacceptable.
I don't have to trust H&R policies because the computer I prepare my taxes on never touches the internet when that software is running, and I print the forms directly to my printer over a simple USB cable.
I don't use the free versions of any of them because they all store your data on their servers. The paid version let's you keep it on your on computer (like Quicken does), but there is that e-file thing. And I haven't been clear just what information they keep (and sell) from that. So, thank you for the information (although I couldn't see the WaPo article). I am hopeful that all they see is the return itself without downloading all the back up information -- but who knows?
I fault the IRS for this. They limit how you can e-file by requiring a vendor do it for you. Here in Pennsylvania they went fully the reverse: you cannot file on paper anymore -- if you don't use software, then you have to file the entire return on their website -- much like the free, online version of vendor software. I guess that is better...
Not sure if anyone will ever see this, but I found a reference for what I'm talking about here:
Not sure I totally buy the third-party code excuse because so many apps use third-party libraries without issue -- even some really sketchy third-party tracking libraries. But the line at the end that says "Don't worry, it's a secure online service" should be taken with a very, very large grain of salt.
Comments