Dividend Tracker Privacy: What to Check Before You Link a Brokerage

A dividend tracker can forecast your dividend income from two facts: the ticker of each stock and the number of shares you own. Linking your brokerage account is a convenience that saves typing and brings in your real payment history. It is not a requirement.

This guide explains how account linking works, what it shares and with whom, and what to check in any tracker before you sign up. OnlyDividends publishes it, and we make an app that does not link to brokerages at all. So we also say plainly what linking gives you that our approach does not.

What a dividend tracker needs to know about you

Dividends are public information. A company announces the amount per share and the payment date to everyone. The only private input is how many shares you hold.

Take 120 shares of a company that pays $0.50 per share each quarter:

Nothing in that table needs a login, an account number, a balance or a purchase price. The 15% is only an example of a rate you would choose yourself. For how to pick it, see your real dividend income after taxes.

A linked account adds things the forecast does not need: your trades, your cash balance, your cost basis and the amounts your broker actually paid. Those are useful for performance reports and for an exact history. They are also the data you may prefer to keep to yourself.

How account linking works

When an app offers to "connect your brokerage", it usually does not talk to your broker directly. It uses a data aggregator, a company that sits between financial institutions and apps. Plaid and SnapTrade are two examples.

FINRA, the US brokerage regulator, describes two ways an aggregator gets your data:

• Screen scraping. You type your broker username and password into the app. The aggregator logs in as you with an automated program and collects what it finds.
• An API. Your broker and the aggregator have an agreement. You approve the access without handing over your password, and the access can be limited in scope.

FINRA notes that scraping used to be the standard, that aggregators are moving to APIs, and that security experts often consider APIs the safer option. Some institutions now block scraping.

You can usually tell which method is in use. If you are sent to your broker's own website or app to approve the connection, it is the API route. If you type your broker password into a form inside the tracker, it is credential-based.

What gets read

Plaid's End User Privacy Policy (effective December 8, 2025) lists what it may collect, depending on the app:

• login data when the institution requires it, such as a username and password, plus security questions and one-time codes
• the account name, type, number and owner
• current and available balances
• for investment accounts: transactions, the type of asset, the quantity, the price, fees and cost basis
• the owner's name, email, phone number, date of birth and address

The same policy says the data can cover every account reachable with one set of credentials, including joint accounts.

Who holds the data

Two companies end up with it: the aggregator and the app.

Plaid's policy states that it does not cover what the app's developer does with your data. SnapTrade's privacy policy says the same from the other side: it processes end-user data on the app's instructions, and the app is responsible. You therefore have two privacy policies to read, not one.

In the United States, Plaid offers a portal at my.plaid.com where you can see the connections you made, end them, and delete the associated data stored by Plaid.

What the risks are, and what they are not

A read-only connection cannot place trades or withdraw money. That part of the fear is often overstated. But not every connection is read-only. SnapTrade describes its own service as providing read, write and transfer capabilities. FINRA advises checking that an aggregator gets only the access the service needs. Look at the permission screen before you approve.

The realistic exposure is the data. A linked tracker and its aggregator hold a detailed picture of your finances: what you own, what it is worth, every trade. FINRA lists the consequences: exposure to cyber fraud, unauthorized transactions and identity theft, with a higher risk when an aggregator stores login credentials for many customers in one place. It also points out that many aggregators are not regulated the way brokers and banks are.

Your broker's fraud guarantee may not follow you. This is the least known point. Schwab's Security Guarantee promises to cover losses from unauthorized activity in your accounts. Its own questions and answers then address apps that retrieve your account data. If you share your login or authorize access through a third-party app that Schwab has not partnered with, and that leads to a loss, Schwab says "the guarantee does not apply". Whatever the aggregator does is treated as authorized by you.

Other brokers have their own terms. Read your broker's guarantee before linking, and look for the words "aggregator" or "third party".

Old connections stay open. FINRA warns that deleting an app from your phone may not end the aggregator's access. You may have to revoke it at the aggregator or in your broker's security settings.

What US rules say today

There is a federal rule on this, but it is not settled and it does not centre on brokerage accounts.

The CFPB published its Personal Financial Data Rights rule, known as the Section 1033 or open banking rule, on November 18, 2024. It requires data providers to make a customer's data available to authorized third parties, and it sets conditions on how those third parties collect, use and keep it. The products it covers are payment accounts under Regulation E (such as checking accounts), credit cards, and payment services. Investment holdings are not on that list.

The rule was challenged in a federal court in Kentucky. Its compliance dates originally ran from April 1, 2026 to April 1, 2030, depending on the size of the institution. In its reconsideration notice of August 22, 2025, the CFPB said a court order had pushed the first date to June 30, 2026, and that it planned to propose a further extension while it reexamines the rule. Its regulatory agenda published on August 14, 2026 still lists that reconsideration as planned.

The CFPB's compliance page states the current position: on October 29, 2025, the court in the Kentucky case stayed the rule's compliance dates. No institution is required to comply while that stay is in place.

We found no later proposed or final rule in the Federal Register as of October 3, 2026. Treat the rule as under review, and check the CFPB's page for its current status. For now, what protects your brokerage data is your broker's terms and the privacy policies of the app and its aggregator.

A checklist for any tracker

Two notes on the store listings. Apple's privacy labels sort data into three groups: used to track you, linked to you, and not linked to you. Google explains that developers fill in the Data safety section themselves, so it is a declaration, not an audit. Use both as a first filter, then read the policy.

On deletion, Apple requires apps that support account creation to let you start the deletion inside the app. Google Play requires an in-app path and a web link.

Linked account or manual entry

Linking wins on upkeep and on history. If you trade often, reinvest dividends automatically, or need the exact amount received for each payment, a linked account or a file import from your broker does that work for you. Manual entry cannot.

Manual entry wins on how little you hand over. It suits a portfolio that changes a few times a year.

File import sits in between. You download a statement from your broker and upload it to the tracker. No live connection exists, but the file still contains your transactions.

The most private option: a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet stored on your own computer shares nothing with anyone. No account, no policy to read, no company that can be breached or sold.

The cost is time. You enter every payment and every dividend change yourself, and nothing warns you when a company cuts its payout. A spreadsheet kept in a cloud service is also stored on that provider's servers, so how private it is depends on that provider and on your sharing settings. Our comparison of ways to track dividend income covers spreadsheets, broker reports and apps side by side.

What OnlyDividends collects, and what it does not

OnlyDividends takes the manual approach. You enter a ticker and a number of shares. It never connects to a brokerage or a bank. Manual entry does not mean nothing is stored, so here is what our privacy policy says.

What we store:

• your email address and the sign-in method you chose (email, Google or Apple)
• the tickers and share counts you enter, with the public market data for those tickers
• your settings: currency, language, time zone, tax rate and income goal
• technical data: device type, crash reports, usage analytics linked to your account, and screen recordings of a sample of sessions with text and images masked

What we do not collect: bank or brokerage credentials, balances, transaction history, purchase prices, cost basis, government identifiers, card details, contacts, photos, location or advertising identifiers.

Your portfolio is stored on servers in Paris, not only on your phone. We do not sell personal data and the app shows no ads. You can delete your account in Settings; some operational logs are kept for a time, as the policy lists. To get a copy of your data, or to opt out of analytics and session recording, you write to support@onlydividends.app; there is no in-app switch for either yet.

The limits are the ones in the table above. You update your holdings when you trade, although stock splits are adjusted for you. The amounts shown are estimates built from public dividend data, not the deposits your broker recorded. If you want sync or exact history, another app will fit better. Our comparison of six dividend tracker apps shows which ones offer optional brokerage linking and which plans include it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to link my brokerage account to track dividends?

No. A tracker can forecast your dividends from a ticker and a share count, because dividend amounts and dates are public. Linking adds automatic updates and your real payment history.

Is it safe to link my brokerage account to an app?

A read-only connection cannot move your money. The risks are that your holdings and transactions are stored by the app and its aggregator, that either can be breached, and that your broker's fraud guarantee may not cover losses tied to access you authorized.

Can a dividend tracker app withdraw money or place trades?

Not with read-only access. Some aggregators also offer trading and transfer features to the apps they serve, so check the permission screen before you approve a connection.

How do I track dividends without linking my bank account?

Use an app with manual entry, import a file from your broker, or keep a spreadsheet. With manual entry you type the ticker and the number of shares, then update the count when you buy or sell.

What data does Plaid collect from an investment account?

Its policy lists account details, balances, transactions, the type and quantity of each asset, prices, fees and cost basis, plus the owner's contact details. It also lists login data when the institution requires it.

Does sharing my broker password break my broker's terms?

It can remove protections. Schwab asks customers not to share login details and treats the activity of anyone you shared them with as authorized by you. Check your own broker's guarantee.

How do I disconnect an app from my brokerage?

Deleting the app may not be enough. Revoke the access in your broker's security settings or at the aggregator, then delete your account in the tracker itself.

Is manual entry less accurate than a linked account?

For forecasts, no, as long as your share counts are up to date. For history, yes. A linked account shows what your broker paid, while manual entry shows an estimate.

Disclaimer

This article is general information, not legal, security or investment advice. Policies and rules were checked in October 2026 and can change. OnlyDividends publishes this article and makes one of the apps discussed. Read the current privacy policy of any app, and your broker's terms, before you connect an account.