Mint Data Lets You See Anonymous Purchase Trends
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Friday, October 29th, 2010 (4 comments) |
I've never liked Mint.com. Not because they're bad at what they do (they're not), but because you have to drop your trousers to take advantage of it. So you get a little money management help, so what? You have to give away your password to do it. Not only that, Mint is (surprise, surprise) using all that juicy data you provide for their own purposes.
For now, it seems that they're not actually telling you who purchased what, but there's no telling when and if they'll start selling your valuable personal data to 3rd parties (maybe they are already). Until then, showing truly anonymous purchase information is kind of neat so long as they don't take it further than that.
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According to American Banker this morning, they are selling it:
From the Editors of American Banker
Mint’s Latest PFM Play: Trading User Privacy for Traffic
Mint.com is testing a counterintuitive theory: that consumers will ignore privacy concerns for a feature they find compelling.
Last week Intuit Inc.’s Mint announced that anyone can view the transaction data that its roughly 4 million users originally provided for their personal use, though the data is shown only in aggregated form to keep individuals unidentifiable. The feature, called Mint Data, resembles the main offering of Bundle Corp., with a key distinction: Whereas Bundle does not include the data of people who signed up with it as a personal financial management site, Mint does and it does not give its users a way to opt out.
I have to wonder how many people will notice and then how many will stop using it. Once you’re used to the service, people find it hard to stop.
any updates on Mint.com and privacy issues? I’m just wondering because I use it almost exclusively for my home budgeting. Should I stop?
I’m not really watching them, but if they still require your password to use their service, I personally would find a different solution. My bank uses a similar service that can only be accessed by logging into your real account first. This gives the same benefit, but does not provide the password to a 3rd party.