Why can't I copy/paste passwords into the import brokerage logon screen?

[tax2019-iinnttuuiitt]

> Rest assured that if a convenience is no longer available, the decision has been made to make that change to protect what is most important:  personal and private data.

@DanielV01 , then why does pasting for the import brokerage page WORKS on the Mac version. Are you saying  TT does not care about "personal and private data" for Mac users?

[OldArch]

Daniel,
You appear to have supplied a standard prepared reply.  That message does not address the problem. Please examine this thread so that you will understand what that problem is and can bring it to the attention of whoever is in charge of quality control at Intuit.

[Click]

I have worked in IT security for years. The only shred of truth to blocking copy/paste of passwords is the possibility that someone would leave a password in their clipboard for an extended period of time to be harvested later by malware. But that risk is slight, and password managers, not applications, have the responsibility to reduce this to a manageable risk.

Financial passwords should be long and complex, filled with random characters of all types (including obscure punctuation marks and characters that you can't even type on a keyboard) and then placed into a secure password manager. From there it can be copied into password prompts and clipboard cleared in seconds.

By hanging on to security urban legend thinking, Turbotax is encouraging people to simplify their passwords, make them shorter, and less complex to make it easier to type in. That is the opposite of good security. That is nothing but security theatre that is counterproductive.

[aboutreadytoleave]

@DanielV01 @TerukoL @Anonymous as the TurboTax team has once again gone silent on this topic I wanted to share something that I hope you will share with decision makers ate intuit. As I have stated before, I have used TT for decades. When I first started I had to buy the software from physical stores. My 2021 taxes will be prepared by another vendor. As your software reminds me a dozen times before I submit, "It's not too late!" Fix this or at least have someone with some real authority come on and give a detailed answer as to why you have this foolish policy and I'll come back. Otherwise, I'm going to change my user name from "aboutreadytoleave" to "imoutofhere". I hope others will join me. There are so many options these days and this kind of customer service needs to be punished.

 

[AdrienneS]

I am also tired of not begin able to use the Import function that Turbotax has.  Remembered being excited when this feature was added (never able to use it).  Kept thinking that it would be fixed...never was.  When I called, was told the same thing, it was for security.  Which I told the agent does not make sense.  Figure they were reading from a script.  Guess for 2021, will check out using another tax preparer's software.

[AuldFort]

You really don't get it, do you?

Hey, I have a better idea!  Why not just do the whole tax return manually?  Why do we need to make things easier, it just takes away work from paid tax preparers.  Who needs TurboTax anyway?

Sheesh!

[hazyIPA1]

This problem annoys the **bleep** out of me because it’s such a easy fix, but we keep getting low level responses that it’s for security. How do we get someone in here that knows wtf is going on?

This is a huge joke. Fix your **bleep** TurboTax. Fix this problem so your members can file taxes easily. It’s SO easy.  

[AuldFort]

I have passwords generated by a password manager, originally Lastpass, but it is unable to enter the password into the field or paste it.  Same problem with Bitwarden.  Since the passwords are complicated, I'm forced to write it down so I can enter it into the field (blindly, no less).  Somehow, I guess that's supposed to be safer than pasting it in.  Just as long as I remember to burn the paper I wrote the password on.

**bleep**, my trashcan is on fire!

[jbowler]

People with password managers: the work round for this very serious bug in TT has been posted on this list already.  Look upwardly; look for the phrase AUTOHOTKEY.  This app will type your password in for you, without errors (otherwise impossible with my passwords).

I try to post this a couple of times a year on this thread, but perhaps other people could chime in too - just copy'n'paste what I or (with their permission) other posters have documented about using autohotkey.  Please, if it hasn't been posted for a month repeat it here.

[swabbinsky]

exactly

before coming here and seeing this topic, this is exactly the feedback I sent them.  I vary the length of mine but 25 or more characters of gibberish is common.

[swabbinsky]

The odd thing is I used to use the import.  Up until this year.  Given the comments, I'm not sure how I did it.  My password manager also will let you drag & drop so maybe that used to work and they nipped that in the bud.

I was considering not using it for Fidelity this year anyway.  They report each transaction instead of various for each of the equity sales types.  I ended up with 6 pages of 8949 last year.  Easier to type in the summary than check that all those were imported correctly.

[OldArch]

It is disappointing and puzzling that Intuit won't address this problem.  The complaints have fallen on deaf ears for years now.
I have written a tiny little program that helps with the problem.  You paste the value into it and it types it into TurboTax. The program stands alone, doesn't need AutoHotKey or any other helper.  If anyone is interested I would be willing to share it.  Just email me at: [PII removed] (type it as it sounds)

[jbowler]

It's true that AutoHotKey requires you don't just download a program but also copy'n'paste some lines from previous posts in this thread to a file then run that.  The reason to use AutoHotKey is that it has been scrutinized repeatedly to see if it is doing something bad, like sending your data to insert-name-here; key-press grabbing is one of the most serious pieces of malware that can be put onto a computer, and various world leaders would really like it everywhere.  Things that fake key presses basically have the much-desired data up-front.  This is the dubious and, as your download-my-program suggestion proves dangerous justification Intuit have for banning people from using the clipboard.

There're probably some bunch of Intuitocrats sitting having this conversation:

"Spoon 1: Well, we can't do that, we might get sued.  Anyway, it's safer to create a situation where only the people with a detailed knowledge of computer software can find a safe way of bypassing the clipboard.

Spoon 2: What if people who don't have a detailed knowledge of computer software download a program that says it will fix the problem, does fix the problem, but also rips off their passwords?

Spoon 1: That's not our problem.

Spoon 3: I've been reading this thing on our outsource-support-to-dumb users forums.  It's obvious it is a big problem, and the people who are posting have things like brokerage accounts, which is not something I can afford on the pay.  Doesn't this mean our plausible deniability excuse is going up in smoke?

Spoon 1: You're fired."

[bauerej]

I landed on this thread searching support for "Can't paste passwords". I too use a password vault which generates and stores long, complex, and unique passwords for each account. The fact that TurboTax prevents me from pasting them into the screen to download my data from financial providers is both absurd and extremely annoying. Instead I have to look it up, write it down, and type it in. And that is supposed to help security? Bullsh....

Reviewing the long thread here and the nonsense replies from TurboTax makes it clear that they don't care. But I still feel the need to add my voice to the growing list of users fed up with this stupid position that they have taken.

[swabbinsky]

  gee you can type yours in?  I have sometimes been able to (not here) after 4-6 attempts and sometimes never. 

I hesitate a bit to post this solution as it probably gives TT an excuse not to fix this.  I bought a car last Sept.   There was some confusion as to whether they would take a personal check and might want me to use some software where I would log in to my account on their computer (wasn't happy with that idea of course).  Of course I'd still be trying to buy the car if I had to type it in.  So what I did was to change it to a decent but memorable password on my phone when I got to the dealer with the intention that I would do what I needed ot and then change it back to a good password.  Turns out the paper check was fine but that technique should work here as well.