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From: Robert Neville on 3 Jun 2010 00:16
Interesting article on privacy in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/business/media/31privacy.html

Relevent paras:

Daniel Sjoberg, a 26-year-old in Manhattan, signed up for Mint as he was
completing graduate school in biostatistics last summer. He allowed the site to
pull information from his checking account, his credit card and his student loan
account.

He meant to use Mint as a budgeting tool, but soon began browsing through offers
Mint listed under �ways to save.� He signed up for a Charles Schwab checking
account when he learned it would refund his A.T.M. fees, and an Ally savings
account based on the interest rate.

Sponsors are allowed to include their logo and a link to their site, and they
pay a referral fee if a consumer signs up, but offers from nonsponsors are
listed, too. Mr. Sjoberg said he particularly liked how transparent Mint seemed
to be.

�They put that very clearly for you to see � �We think Ally is good for you, and
by the way, they�re endorsing us,� � Mr. Sjoberg said. �It�s refreshing to have
it out in the open who�s giving them money and who�s not giving them money.�

Aaron Patzer, who founded Mint in 2007 (the company was acquired by Intuit in
2009 for $170 million), believed that users would give the site private
information in return for allowing Mint to analyze their finances to alert them
when they had exceeded their budget, or to send them offers from cable companies
or banks.

�Most venture capitalists, when I was starting this company, said that no one
would trust a start-up with their financial information,� said Mr. Patzer, now
vice president and general manager of Intuit�s personal finance group. �In
essence, we would data-mine your own data in order to help you.�
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