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There is absolutely a reason. It's a service and many people (myself included) don't want to download a desktop app to use it. He's not asking for your SSN or

There is absolutely a reason. It's a service and many people (myself included) don't want to download a desktop app to use it. He's not asking for your SSN or your address. If you want to use a burner email and a VPN or enter fake data to try it out, you can. This hardline approach of "every service should be an open source desktop app that I can run with zero telemetry from my cabin in the woods with no internet" so often found on HN is clearly not the opinion of the majority of internet users.

fragileone 5y ago
> He's not asking for your SSN or your address. They're asking for even worse - all your historical financial data. Why would you want to give some random guy on the internet that?
- cddotdotslash 5y ago
  Again, unless you provide some _other_ piece of data (full real name, email, etc) connecting that data back to you, I fail to see the harm. Regardless, no one is forcing you to use the site, or even provide real numbers. If anonymously providing your salary and savings data worries you then don't use it.
- liuhenry 5y ago
  I'm trying to understand the concern but most of my worry around "historical financial data" would be actual transaction-level information, not rough summary figures to estimate a financial plan. I just played around with the site myself and I didn't see anywhere that it imports data, plus the tagline on the homepage says "never ask to link your financial accounts"? Isn't this essentially the same risk profile as like FIREcalc [1], or the NYT Rent or Buy calculator [2], or some portfolio analysis tool [3], are you saying that those shouldn't be online calculators either? [1] https://firecalc.com https://firecalc.com [2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal... [3] https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com

fragileone 5y ago

> He's not asking for your SSN or your address. They're asking for even worse - all your historical financial data. Why would you want to give some random guy on the internet that?

cddotdotslash 5y ago
Again, unless you provide some _other_ piece of data (full real name, email, etc) connecting that data back to you, I fail to see the harm. Regardless, no one is forcing you to use the site, or even provide real numbers. If anonymously providing your salary and savings data worries you then don't use it.
liuhenry 5y ago
I'm trying to understand the concern but most of my worry around "historical financial data" would be actual transaction-level information, not rough summary figures to estimate a financial plan. I just played around with the site myself and I didn't see anywhere that it imports data, plus the tagline on the homepage says "never ask to link your financial accounts"? Isn't this essentially the same risk profile as like FIREcalc [1], or the NYT Rent or Buy calculator [2], or some portfolio analysis tool [3], are you saying that those shouldn't be online calculators either? [1] https://firecalc.com https://firecalc.com [2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-cal... [3] https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com