Personal financial management (PFM) tools such as Mint.com pull information from a variety of sources. You can view all of your accounts in one place, and these tools help you get a bird's eye view to keep track of your money -- how much you have, where it goes, and where it is.
However, you have to provide login information for every account you want to track. What if Mint.com is unable to protect your login information? Somebody could access all of your most important accounts and maybe even steal some money.
Now there's a way to protect yourself. ING Direct offers a special login for these PFM tools (or data aggregators), and other banks should do the same. The login is for read-only access; it does not allow the user to do anything. PFM tools only need to download data -- not transfer funds, change your address, or create payees in the online bill pay system.
Jim at Bargaineering explains how to get ING Direct's secure credentials. If you use PFM tools, keep an eye out for more banks offering a read-only option and use it when you can.