Intuit/Quicken Force Users to Internet & MS Internet Explorer

[Audrie Krause <audrie@netaction.org>]

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PRIVACY Forum Digest      Saturday, 19 Jun 1999      Volume 08 : Issue 09

Moderated by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.   http://www.vortex.com

Date:    Sat, 19 Jun 99 09:46 PDT
>From:    lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator)
Subject: Intuit/Quicken Force Users to Internet & MS Internet Explorer

Greetings.  Just as the banking industry in the U.S. has been issuing
concerns about the security of Internet and Web-based banking systems, one
of the biggest players in the online banking industry, Intuit, makers of
Quicken, have quietly moved to force all of their users onto the Internet
for all online banking services, and in some cases are requiring the
use of Microsoft's Internet Explorer instead of other browsers such
as Netscape Navigator.

Catherine Allen, chief executive of the Banking Industry Technology
Secretariat, a division of Bankers Roundtable, recently said, "The banks
feel that firewalls and what they have internally is in great shape, but the
link is to the consumer and PC environments [where they find security more
suspect]."

While newer versions of Quicken software have apparently been Internet-based
for some time, many users had opted to stay with older versions since they
used direct dialup lines for communications, and did not rely on Microsoft's
Internet Explorer.

However, Intuit (and/or in some cases users' banks) over the last two months
or so have been sending out a somewhat confusing series of letters, informing
these users that their versions of Quicken are not "Y2K" compliant, and that
they must upgrade by designated nearby dates (e.g. June 30, 1999) or lose
their online banking access.  Some materials simply suggested that certain
features (such as pre-scheduled bill payments) would have problems past
Jan 1 2000--other materials claimed a total cutoff of services to
non-upgraded users.  Sometimes the same letter seemed to make
both statements.

Intuit and/or user banks made a number of options available, including a
free minimalist downloadable upgrade and various payment-based enhanced
upgrades.  However, the fine print of these offers (sometimes buried at the
end of the letters) indicated that all access would be via the Internet for
these new versions.  Arrangements for limited free Internet access would be
available to those who didn't already have an Internet Service Provider, the
letters suggested.

I spent a couple of weeks clarifying this whole situation with Intuit and
their public relations firm through a lengthy series of phone calls.  While
it wasn't difficult reaching Intuit's public relations folks, getting to
people who could answer technical questions at this level was a bit more of
an effort.  However, everyone involved was polite and willing to address my
questions in a direct manner to the extent that they could.

The bottom line is that all users of older Quicken software *do* need to
upgrade and *will* be using the Internet for all future transactions.  There
will be limited free Internet access available for Quicken transactional use
(I believe an hour a month, which would be sufficient for this purpose) for
people who need the service.  It is a bit unclear how long this free access
would be available--one person suggested indefinitely, but this does not
appear to be a guarantee.

I'm told that existing users doing the minimalist upgrade from older Quicken
versions (e.g. Version 5 for Windows) will not need to install or use
Internet Explorer (IE) for most online operations.  Users of the more
sophisticated upgrades may be required to use IE for more functions, and
*all* new users of Quicken will be required to install and use IE for secure
signup--Intuit claims that Netscape doesn't have the "required"
functionality for this purpose.

I'm also told that the "standard" installation option of many or all of
these new Quicken versions will install IE by default.  This means that if
you do not want an IE installation (and if you're in a category of existing
user that doesn't need it) you would probably have to disable the IE
installation via the "custom" installation options of the Quicken setup
program.  This could be particularly important to users who may be concerned
about losing existing associations and defaults for any other web browser
already installed (which may be affected by an IE installation), or where
security concerns over IE's ActiveX functions and other related system
complexities are present.

I have in the past expressed other concerns with Quicken.  A continuing
problem is that if online banking transactions are not downloaded at frequent
enough (unannounced) intervals, transactions will be silently lost and all
related calculations and records from that point onward will be in error
unless manually corrected.  Intuit's response to this issue continues to be
suggesting that users have paper records to fix such problems, and that most
users access their data frequently enough that it isn't an issue for them.
Frankly, I would argue that this rather negates much of the point of using
the software in the first place, if you can't trust the transaction
record, even if relatively few people might be affected by this particular
undocumented problem!  I did by the way again suggest (this time to a
Quicken product manager) that users at *least* be warned when transactions
have been lost--they again said they'd consider it...

So, if you're a Quicken user, and you've recently been told you need to
upgrade due to that mean old Y2K monster, you're not alone if the situation
seemed a bit confusing based on the materials you received in the mail.

PRIVACY Forum Digest V08 #09, Lauren Weinstein --- http://www.vortex.com
Host, "Vortex Daily Reality Report & Unreality Trivia Quiz"
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