K_Siman, I appreciate that you have drawn a distinction between logging into an Intuit Account and logging into the Company account. I will acknowledge that for the users who are running Quickbooks Desktop and also subscribing functionality through Intuit for things like payroll, or direct deposit (ACH) there may very well be a need for that user to log into Intuit via the Quickbooks software. However, there seem to be many users, and count me as one, who do not use any services or functionality outside of what is provided directly in the Quickbooks Desktop software. And, since I do not use any functionality that you provide via online connection, there is no reason, no need, for me to log into an Intuit account in order to sign into a company account. And, just so I’m clear beyond a doubt, I do not want to log into an Intuit account from Quickbooks Desktop.
You, and others at Quickbooks, have made two general claims about why you inserted the recent change requiring Desktop users to log into an Intuit account to continue using the product. The first of these was that it was done to “improve the user experience.” I’ll leave it to others as to whether it improves their experience, but it does not improve my user experience one iota. On the contrary having to deal with an additional process that provides no value to me is annoying and lessens my user experience.
The second claim is that it somehow gives the user better security. Again, I’m not going to comment on the security aspects of those who also use your online functionality because I don’t use any of those. But, logging into an Intuit account via Quickbooks Desktop does not provide any better security to me whatsoever. In fact just the opposite. Anytime a user opens a port to the Internet they have created an opening through which a bad actor can enter. Users who need or want a particular online functionality have no choice if they want the service. I don’t want your other services and will not open a port to allow you or anyone else to enter. I will remind you that players larger and more sophisticated then Intuit have been hammered this way. Just ask Microsoft about the Hafnium exploit that took down Exchange servers worldwide recently.
Microsoft makes no claim that users of Office Write or Excell need to log onto a Microsoft account to improve their user experience or to get better security. The same is true of users of Adobe Acrobat, and Corel Photoshop to name just a few. Intuit is on the very wrong end of this issue. Good thing since I’ve prepared documents to go before a court that could send people to prison for a very long time. Microsoft never needed to worry about being hauled into court to explain their software. Maybe Quickbooks should be giving that some thought. I will tell you flat out, were I logged into an Intuit account when my system was hacked Intuit would be the first name on my list of summons.
L_Siman if you have a very specific argument as to why my security is better logged into an Intuit account than not logged onto the Internet at all, I’m all ears. Maybe I’ve missed something in my more than 50 years in the technology world.
