What is Quicken Connect really?
in Direct Connect my financial transactions are between me and USAA. In Quicken Connect, Quicken Inc is ‘helping’ by downloading them for me.
What access does Quicken Inc have to my transaction data?
What are the privacy guarantees here?
To be clear, I will grant Quicken Inc ZERO access to any of my transaction data.
Answers
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You might want to read the following articles:
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Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R60.15 on Windows 11 Home
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@Andrew B Why did you reject the reply provided by @Boatnmaniac? The articles linked provide answers to the questions you asked.
With Quicken Connect, your transaction data flows from your financial institution to a Quicken aggregation server to your Quicken desktop data file. It's worked this way for decades, and millions of Quicken users use Quicken Connect (known as Express Web Connect, or EWC in Quicken Windows). You state unequivocally that "I will grant Quicken Inc ZERO access to any of my transaction data", so if you're stating you won't allow your transactions to flow through a Quicken server, then you don't want to use Quicken Connect.
What are the alternatives?
- If you have a financial institution which offers Direct Connect, your data doesn't pass through a Quicken server. But a number of large financial institutions have discontinued Direct Connect, and it seems Direct Connect may fade away over time.
- If your bank/financial institution allows you to download transactions in QFX format, you can manually download your transactions and import them into Quicken. It's not as convenient, especially if you like to see your transactions frequently, but it's a way to bypass the data going through a Quicken server.
- For ultimate data security, you can enter your transactions manually. Many Quicken users do it, and depending on your volume of transactions, it's not as crazy as it may sound. I've found that I spend minimally more time entering transactions manually than I do if I download them and clean up Payee names, categories, enter memos, create splits, etc.
- Switch to a different program/platform/service for managing your personal finances. Just beware that they all use aggregation services, just like Quicken Connect.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19931 -
Because @boatnmaniac is just pulling the same SuperUser thing that SuperUsers do on every forum, posting a set of FAQ links in response to every question. Obviously I found and read all of those before posting.
My bank is switching from Direct Connect to Quicken Connect so I don’t have any sort of choice about continuing to use it. Would be nice though.
My question is HOW are the transactions stored on Quicken’s server. Are they building a huge database of transaction data, waiting for a privacy policy change to allow them to sell it in bulk to data brokers? Or are they deleting every tranche of data as it’s pulled by me?
I don’t necessarily mind my data going through Quicken servers if they don’t look at it and delete it afterwards.
There has to be some reason for Quicken Inc to be pushing everyone towards their new model, and the huge database seems to me to be a likely explanation.
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Forgot to add: that Privacy Policy is worthless. They could justify literally anything under the current one, and it can be changed at any time anyway.
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Obviously I found and read all of those before posting.
You asked a simple question about what access Quicken has to your data with Quicken Connect. Reread your post, and you'll see it is certainly not "obvious" that you had previously found and read the links @Boatnmaniac provided to address your question. SuperUsers aren't here to shill for the company; we try to help answer questions fellow users pose.
There has to be some reason for Quicken Inc to be pushing everyone towards their new model
It's not Quicken that's making these changes — it's the financial institutions. Quicken still offers Direct Connect for any financial institutions which want to offer it to their customers. But financial institutions are deciding that they don't want the expense of paying a fee to Intuit for Direct Connect connectivity, and/or that they don't want the expense of running separate servers to allow Direct Connect, and/or that they don't want the security risk of allowing third party software to do anything more than read-only access. The financial services industry has coalesced around a standard called FDX for electronic transmission of financial data, and Quicken is being dragged along as financial institutions fully adopt FDX.
My question is HOW are the transactions stored on Quicken’s server. Are they building a huge database of transaction data, waiting for a privacy policy change to allow them to sell it in bulk to data brokers? Or are they deleting every tranche of data as it’s pulled by me?
Okay that's actually a somewhat different question than you asked originally, but it's a fair question to ask. We know that they don't delete transactions data the instant it's downloaded into your local data file, and they definitely retain data if you have enabled data sync with Quicken Cloud in order to use the mobile app or web interface. But I don't think anyone here can answer specific details about exactly how long Quicken retains data or what they do with the data beyond what they state in their policies. You also asked "what are the privacy guarantees" and then stated you feel the privacy policy is "worthless", so I'm not sure what additional information anyone can provide which will satisfy you about the security of your personal data.
Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 19933 -
My question is HOW are the transactions stored on Quicken’s server. Are they building a huge database of transaction data, waiting for a privacy policy change to allow them to sell it in bulk to data brokers? Or are they deleting every tranche of data as it’s pulled by me?
Okay that's actually a somewhat different question than you asked originally, but it's a fair question to ask. We know that they don't
delete transactions data the instant it's downloaded into your local data file, and they definitely retain data if you have enabled data sync with Quicken Cloud in order to use the mobile app or web interface. But I don't think anyone here can answer specific details about exactly how long Quicken retains data or what they do with the data beyond what they state in their policies. You also asked "what are the privacy guarantees" and then stated you feel the privacy policy is "worthless", so I'm not sure what additional information anyone can provide which will satisfy you about the security of your personal data.I do agree with everything that @jacobs said above. When one asks rather generic questions one should expect to get rather generic responses. And, no, it was not "obvious" that you had already reviewed the information in the linked articles that I had provided.
Regarding "My Question is HOW…": As mentioned by @jacobs I seriously doubt that you will find anyone in this forum who can answer that question except for possibly some of the Quicken employees (mostly Moderators). Also, if you also search this forum you will find your questions have been asked many times and not once (that I can recall) has any Quicken employee ever provided any additional information regarding this subject, perhaps because even they do not know but also very likely because they are not authorized to provide more information beyond what the official published documentation says. So, all we have gotten has never been much more than what has been spelled out in those links I'd provided earlier.
You are not alone in being uncomfortable with Quicken Connect and Quicken's Privacy Policy. It then boils down to a personal choice: You can use Quicken Connect, relying on Quicken and Intuit to faithfully protect the privacy of your financial data. Or you can do what some others have done which is to not trust Quicken and Intuit and not use Quicken Connect and instead resort to manually entering your data….and making sure to never use Quicken Mobile or Quicken on the Web.
Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R60.15 on Windows 11 Home
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The financial services industry has coalesced around a standard called FDX for electronic transmission of financial data, and Quicken is being dragged along as financial institutions fully adopt FDX.
@jacobs Thank you, that is very helpful.
[Y]ou will find your questions have been asked many times and not once (that I can recall) has any Quicken employee ever provided any additional information regarding this subject…
@Boatnmaniac Thank you, that is also very helpful. I have seen Quicken people reply to connectivity status questions etc. so I thought perhaps they would be able to answer other questions too.
You are not alone in being uncomfortable with Quicken Connect and Quicken's Privacy Policy.
Yup. I just got off of the phone with USAA, and they couldn't even find anyone who knew anything about this. Web dept. wants to transfer you to the banking dept, banking dept. wants to transfer you to the web dept. Depressing.
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