Data Model and Security under Synch

Golguppa

I just got quicken and called technical support to understand how synch works to protect sensitive financial data. They do not know and answer mysteriously about how your data is never at risk because it is only a 'mirror', 'reflection' or 'image' that is made available to your phone. I have no idea what this actually means and neither do these Tech support people as even a supervisor's supervisor does not know what a TCP/IP connection is.

My question: how does quicken get my data to my phone from my laptop where I enter it without putting data in the cloud? Is it:

A) The data is copied to a cloud where it is vulnerable to attacks (denied by tech support).

B) The data is piped directly from the laptop to the phone via real time encrypted connection managed by quicken and never stored requiring the laptop to be always on.

C) The data is cloud-stored but as a .png, .jpeg, or other image file type so that a visual image rather than a data image is being stored in the cloud.

D) Some new sharding type technology is being used to encrypt financial data and the tech support people don't understand how this works.

E) Some other thing is happening that is not understood by tech support who refer to this thing as 'mirroring' or 'reflecting'.

I need to understand which of these are closest so that I can understand what risks are being undertaken by synching my data. I am looking for a technical answer and/or a white paper making this understandable to a technical person with some coding experience.

John_in_NC

You are not going to get White Papers or intimate details about their system. But, Method A is the closest answer. Yes, a small subset of your data exists on servers for remote retrieval/syncing. It is encrypted, but it is Cloud based, and Quicken is quite open about this as they often refer to the "Quicken Cloud." 

If you are not comfortable with this, then don't use Quicken. There are ways to mitigate the risk such as not using Mobile Sync and not connecting online to banks for transaction import (even if manually importing the transaction file) if that makes you feel better. 

I have no interest in debating the security of Quicken, but do keep in mind that your financial data is already in the Cloud even if you don't use it. Well, perhaps not if you don't use any banks, but most banks have already put your data in the cloud for online access.