But it is possible to be paranoid about security and still have financial information on a home system.

I probably should revise my statement. I do not disagree with your comment. If you know what you are doing the most secure place you can have your data is in on your own system. The chances of someone targeting you individually is slim. If you are more difficult to get information from than 70% of other people there is little chance someone is going to waste their time with you. However this requires that you are paranoid about your data AND computer savvy. This is a very small percentage of the population. Your average user is probably better off having their data at Yodlee where there is a team of knowledgeable individuals protecting their data then they are keeping their data themselves under the illusion that its more secure.

With that said the weakest link in any security system is the actual people involved. Whether your data is on your computer or Yodlee (or both), it is usually the user that will compromise the data not the system (Think Phishing). Now days its not that difficult to have your OS stay up-to-date in patches and have a good firewall, none of which does you any good if you follow a phishing link.

I once looking into a yahoo aggregator for my financial stuff, but didn’t like the idea of having all of my user ids and passwords trusted to one person. I remember reading just a little while ago about how you have to have strong security whether it’s your e-mail address or your bank account password, because if they can hack one, they can get the rest.

Don’t know about Yodlee per se, but I understand the argument. Same one could be used to say that Windows is an attractive target because a majority of desktops run it (contrary to what some Web 2.0 guys want to say).

Then again, if you’re very cautious you probably shouldn’t have that financial data on your computer. The chances are probably better that your individual system would be compromised than a company like Yodlee would have their systems hacked.

Certainly the chances are that it is easier to hack most home systems, although Yodlee would make an attractive target, so I would guess there is more effort against it.

But it is possible to be paranoid about security and still have financial information on a home system. Norice for instance, that I use Macs and Linux systems. These are less likely to be hacked by virtue of their sane system of security contexts, and the venerable Unix core. On top of this, I keep my financial information in encrypted file systems on a system that is not this laptop. My network is protected by a firewall, and as I teach systems administration and security, I feel that the design of my security is sufficiently strong that I can be paranoid, without resorting to invisible ink paper ledgers

My concern with Yodlee is not in transmission to them, nor in the belief that they will deliberately misuse my data, but in that someone might get hold of my data through their system. There are, of course, many sites that hold parts of my financial data. The extent to which it is worth being paranoid about all of these sites is debatable.

Then again, if you’re very cautious you probably shouldn’t have that financial data on your computer. The chances are probably better that your individual system would be compromised than a company like Yodlee would have their systems hacked. Its much more likely that should your Yodlee account be compromised that it would happen because you followed a phishing link, had a trojan on your computer, or otherwise inadvertently divulged your key password. If this was the case chances are good that the financial data on your computer would be given up as well.

Personally I find the risks associated with Yodlee minimal in comparison to the benefits of being able to see a complete financial picture without having to log into 6-8 different websites. In the 5 years I’ve been on Yodlee I have not gotten a single spam message from them (not even a site update message). The e-mail address I setup for Yodlee doesn’t get spam at all, so they’re not selling my data. As for security, I can only say that no one has broken into my accounts… at least yet.

I also do not think that my husband would recommend a website that was not of the highest security. And since he uses this program, I am sure you can be sure he has checked it out to be sure it is safe. I mean this is the man who makes me shred anything with our address on it! (practically)

Mrs. Meg Logan

I am not sure I would trust a web tool with my financial information.

Do they accept ACH transfers in and out of the account?

BTW, another very cool finance website is Yodlee. http://www.yodlee.com . Yodlee is the company that writes all the little interfaces that Quicken, Microsoft Money, etc use to download all your account information into the finanicial software. They have a free web tool that allows you to keep track of all your accounts, setup budgets, etc. It will track your networth and all sorts of other interesting things.