Thursday March 2
Intuit Reportedly Curbs Quicken Leaks to Ad Firm

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Personal finance software maker Intuit Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:INTU - news) Quicken Web site was leaking information to advertisers and the company has moved quickly to address the problem, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Journal reported that a design quirk in the mortgage-calculator and credit-assessment feature on the Quicken site collected information from customers regarding income, assets and debt and then sent it to DoubleClick Inc. (NasdaqNM:DCLK - news), an Internet ad network firm.

DoubleClick said it doesn't keep any of the data it receives, the Journal said.

The data spillage problem was discovered by Internet-security consultant Richard Smith. It appeared to be widespread and not limited to personal-finance sites, the Journal said.

Buy.com appears to be sending DoubleClick the titles of videos its customers are searching for on the site, the Journal said.

The Journal said Intuit wasn't aware of the problem when initially contacted on Wednesday, but then began a ``stop action,'' the Journal said. The company decided to remove the DoubleClick ad from its Quicken loans site, where the company said the problem was isolated, the Journal reported.

DoubleClick's chief executive, Kevin O'Connor said his company also is looking into the problem, the Journal said.

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