Check out :
http://www.wealthbox.com.my/home/index.php

btw, thanks for all these great initiatives !

We are going to build an app that’s not just for budgeting.
The main aim is to make yourself a very effective financial planner (or CEO, CFO) of your own money. The app shall give a clear picture of your financial health just by a few clicks.
I hope we can make something really useful.

Thanks for your insight. I agree with what you’ve said and I am really grateful that you voice it out here.
To me, I even store a lot of my passwords (including internet banking login) in a special app that only save password and url. This is just for the convenience if something happen to me, my wife know there is one place that can retrieve all those info.
If it is possible and cost effective, basically I really want all my document stored on the internet, and free up my office space.

It’s good to see that many people has a high awareness towards internet security and privacy issue.

Allow me to compare the worries that people now had to the time when people think ATM card and credit card is not save (still and issue) but has now being accepted generally well.

There are still a number of people worrying about the possibility of their private information being inspected by other party when they save their info using a web app. This will happen in the either one of the following situation:
A1. The data administrator or web master might have the access to the database.
A2. The security of the server where the web app is hosted is being compromised by hackers.

Let’s see how your private info might be inspected by other party if you choose to save them in your own devices such as mobile phone and laptop in offline mode (I won’t even consider to record using paper and pen as it was unable to to simple task like sorting, charting, etc):
B1. Your devices was being stolen or loss.
B2. The security of your devices (if you have any) was being compromised by your colleagues, family member, technician (in the event of sending your device for repair), etc.

Now, we shall go into the possibilities one by one and see how likely it’s going to happen and how to prevent it.
A1- To defend against your data being inspected by the ‘insider’, let me introduce you to a friend named anonymity. Provide anonymous information during the registration. Next, create a new email account (freely available from gmail, yahoo, etc) for activation purpose. Do not expose your account number, credit card number, PIN number etc. With these, the so called insider will not be able (or extremely difficult, or doesn’t made economical sense) to track your identity and thus your privacy is protected. I would say that your privacy is safer with the web app(after you have taken the above precautions) than the bank officer who know who you are, how much money you have, your account number, where you stay, or basically all of the most private info you ever let go. Consider saving in bank a risky thing if you think saving your info online is risky.

A2- Most people know what is a hacker and what a hacker does. But trust me, the web app is less likely to being successfully hacked compare to us being robbed by a robber (at least in Malaysia’s context). And if you have taken the precautions mentioned in A1, the info the hacker manage to get (if he broke in successfully) is as good as digital waste. “Mr A who spends $2000 a month in average owns $10,000 in Bank B”. Doesn’t it looks like a digital waste?

B1-Consider the current public safety condition in our country, the possibilities of your digital device being stolen is moderate. If that happens to you, there are two type of consequences. First, you will lose all your valuable data. Second, the stolen data falls in the hand of people who know how to ‘utilized ‘ them.

B2-Remember Edison Chan? He send his PC to a repair shop and subsequently all of his private data was being exposed to the public. As a person who works in the IT field, I can safely said that it’s many time easier to compromise the security of a PC/hand phone than a web server. Worse still, many people did not password protect the software they use to record their financial and private info. The data being exposed will be “Mr Tan Ah Kau spends $2000 a month. He has $10,000 of cash in Maybank with the account number A1234567. Isn’t it risky?

My opinion might sounds one sided but I hope it make sense. Security and privacy is a price to pay in exchange of greater convenient. To me, my privacy is as good as gone the moment I provide my personal details to banks, securities company, insurance company etc. The price was paid up front, why don’t we enjoy the convenient we get? All I was trying to said is, it is a risk if we do not save our info on the internet. Let me end my comment with a sentence I read somewhere. “To a people who know how to invest, it’s a risk if he does not invest. To a person who don’t know how to invest, it’s a risk if he was to invest.

But if the online apps can be used offline from a handheld / phone device, and voice activated then I am interested to try

Is it possible that you remain anonymous when using online financial app?
You don’t have to store your bank accounts details and credit card number there.
Of course these won’t valid if the service had to sync with the banking transaction, like Mint.com.

I find it very useful, suite my needs, and only problem is can’t sync with local banks for statement consolidation.

I wouldn’t use online solution to keep track of my financial info. I feel that it is very private, needs security.

Unless you invest a lot in security (SSL & 3rd party hacking monitoring etc), or it is not safe. If you invest a lot, it means paid service…

Yes it will be a free app.

@Ryan,

Thanks for your valuable feedbacks!

Ryan built a financial app too.
You can access it for free at http://www.moneyfeature.com/

These are just my own opinions about security issue. In fact, if the data exist somewhere, there is always a security issue. Our PC can be hacked too. Like pointed by Raymond, can we trust the bank stuff? Somehow, security breach does happen from time to time. Such twitter (such a popular microblogging platform) also hacked.

Since internet is so common nowadays web app has an advantage over stand alone application. Yes, stand alone application might sometimes load faster in PC or mobile phone and can operate without internet connection. But without proper back up, you might loose or your valuable data when there is an unfortunate event (such as mobile phone/laptop being stolen).

There is a work around that I wish to suggest that could benefit even those who do not have constant internet access. You can try do develop using Google Gears. With Goggle Gears, the user can still use the web app in offline mode. Under offline mode, the data will be store locally until there is an internet connection where all the data will be uploaded to the online server accordingly.

As for security, I think it’s okay as long as I did not expose my account numbers or card numbers. However, I am moderately worried with web app (such as mint.com) that provides tracking on card spending. I could become a potential target for hackers and crackers. Thus I prefer manual input since we will be provided with transaction summary by the end of the month.

I am looking forward for the web app and am willing to share any feedback from my clients.

But I never store any password for bank accounts on it.

For security concern, as same question, can we trust bank staffs?

I am not worried about the security problem, as I trust the developer would have taken care of this.

To answer your survey, I think many of us would like to know first whether you are making this application free for all? Hehehe …

Thanks for your valuable feedback. I think many people are concern about the security issue.
I use iPhone. There are a lot of financial app for iPhone too. Some are too simple that can only track cash flow but nothing else (such as report, planning, budgeting etc)
Some apps are very powerful only if it is sync to the web full version. And I agree mobility is the most important feature in order to give the users the convenience to track real time.

@Relax,
I am wondering why you don’t seem to worry about security issue?
The features you mentioned are very important. We will try our best to work on it, especially the priority setting feature.