Account aggregation enables you to organize and monitor information over the internet about practically all of your assets including bank accounts, credit cards, investments, insurance polices, and even frequent flyer miles. You use just one web site and one password. But do you really want all that info in the hands of one internet company?

The ability to access all this information at one site means that you have to provide your account numbers, passwords, and in some instances other personal identifiers, to an internet website. Before you give anyone this kind of sensitive information, check out the company.

There’s a long list of questions that you should ask and some of the most important are:

Who owns the web site, and where is it located? If the domain name is registered to a foreign company, give second and third thoughts about sharing this type of information with strangers.

What are the company’s privacy and security policies? Are they clearly laid out for you? And what about the timeliness of the information – how often is your data updated?