I love Mint.com, it's one of the only things I link to permanently on my site. See? You can see it there to the right.

What most impresses me about Mint is that it's probably the best budgeting/personal finance software out there. On top of that, it's totally free! I recommend it to anyone I come in contact with who hasn't tried it. Most who do are immediately hooked. It turns keeping track of your finances into an obsession, in a good way! Most of us could stand to be more observant of the comings and goings of our cash.

The biggest concern using a service like Mint is that you are putting a bevy of very private information in one place and trusting a faceless company not to misuse it. These are usernames, passwords, stats and figures that you probably wouldn't give to your sister or brother but are giving to Mint! When you think about that, it seems like a huge risk and--don't kid yourself--it is. The only reason that I trust Mint with my info is because it would be disastrous for them if my information were ever compromised. I'm not sure that that's good critical thinking on my part but I enjoy the service so much that I'm willing to take on the risk.

Then, Mint pulls stuff like this. Basically, they take their user data and compile it into an aggregate to make a cool infographic that generates traffic and publicity for them. As a piece of linkbait, this is great, however, it also reminds me how much trust I'm putting into Mint. What are they doing with my data over there? Well, making linkbait, for starters. So far, I'm not that worried; I just wonder if Mint takes into account how nervous they make their users when they display information like this publicly when they are creating an infographic like this in an effort to drum up interest.

There are two sides to every coin and, right now, Mint is seeing both sides of all my coins. So please, Mint, be careful with my data. Don't let today's infographic turn into tomorrow's sharing-my-info-with-the-IRS. Not that I have anything to hide, of course... [Mint.com]