Sanitized File and Account Balances
Quicken recently crashed so I submitted the crash report that popped up.
Later I received an email requesting I upload a Sanitized file for analysis.
Before I send quicken the sanitized file, I want to know what a sanitized file includes. Based on what I read online, the sanitized file strips out all the account numbers, passwords, payees and categories. That's all good but it seems that if the real transaction amounts and account balances are left in the file, quicken would be able to link our net-worth with our user ID (assuming all assets are tracked in quicken).
Am I right about this? I mean, maybe they already know all this about us anyway, but I'd prefer they didn't because if they knew what we were all worth, they'd want to raise the price 😉!
Am I being overly paranoid?
Comments
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No, you aren't being overly paranoid in my opinion based on what is left in a sanitized file.
You do have to realize that even if they stripped out what I think they should, they have to leave somethings like the transactions adding up to your net worth otherwise the file would be totally worthless. And that goes for some problems just won't benefit from being sent if they do strip out what I think shouldn't be sent. Like the online services should definitely be totally disabled, which means they can't check for that kind of problem directly in the file.
Note that you can see what would be in a sanitized file by selecting Help → Contact Quicken Support → Sanitize a Data Copy
It will create a ZIP file with the new QDF file in it.
At a minimum I would use:
File → Copy or Backup a File… → Create a copy or template and deselect the option for including attachments.
This copy will properly disable all online services.
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Chris_QPW,
I've created the sanitized zip file but haven't looked at it yet. I don't think I'm going to send it. I'm sure quicken will fix whatever caused the crash eventually.
I've also done the "Create a copy or template" recently. I did it when I was trying to fix a corrupted file. It worked. You're right that it removes all the online services. I had to re-establish online services for each account. It was worth it to have a file that passed the super validate check.
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