Ask HN: Is Quicken Safe?

[charliedavis03]

Hi,

First time poster, long time lurker....

On the Mac, I use Little Snitch to monitor my computer's network connections. My accountant really likes Quicken and more or less insists I use it. When I start the desktop app I see it try to make several connections:

www.gstatic.com aa.online-metrix.net cdn.optimizely.com tags.tiqcdn.com cdn.mxpnl.com connect.facebook.net www.googleadservices.com api.mixpanel.com

Some of these are seemly benign (such as gstate) but others appear to be less so. For example when I google

aa.online-metrix.net

I get:

'''It is listed as a unsafe domain created to hijack web browser, and we identify it as redirect virus. ... Aa.online-metrix.net is a unreliable webpage belonging to redirect virus and potentially unwanted program (PUP) and it brags the capacities to show advertisements on the PC, both for Windows and Mac.'''

Also, I don't have a facebook account nor do I want to have anything to do with facebook. Does anyone know why my finance software is trying to make connections there.

All in all I kinda of wish I didn't know this about Quicken (just kidding) because I need to use it if I want to continue to work with my accountant whom I really like. But now I am really uncomfortable about doing so.

I am curious how bad an idea do people think doing so is. Are there known safe alternatives?

Thanks in advance.

[provlem]

www.gstatic.com aa.online-metrix.net cdn.optimizely.com tags.tiqcdn.com cdn.mxpnl.com connect.facebook.net www.googleadservices.com api.mixpanel.com

^^ These are CDN website and tracker used by large companies and sadly, it's not only in quicken but is injected on large parts of Internet and it is safe but privacy - just check your self on that.

Quicken looks promising based on it's RANK, popularity and domain age. Personally never used though!

If your accountant is trustable, give it a shot.

[lameiam]

Thanks, privacy is always a concern but also something I have largely given up on. Which is definitely sad. I just thought it funny that aa.online-metrix.net seemed pretty bogus. On well. I remember the days when software companies (I worked at one) had strong polices prohibiting their software from communicating back to the company without user's explicit consent. Those days are long gone.