On January 14th I broke a story "New Firethorn App and Website" and today they made it official..."Firethorn Adds Mobile Banking Support for Over 3,700 Financial Institutions," but that's only half the story.

I spent some time this afternoon combing through the fine print and was SHOCKED and ALARMED by what I read.

Here are a few snippits:

"In addition, you hereby grant Firethorn and its service providers a limited power of attorney, and you hereby appoint Firethorn and its service providers as your true and lawful attorney-in-fact"

"YOU AGREE THAT WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS THAT YOU MAY INCUR AS A RESULT OF SOMEONE ELSE USING YOUR PASSWORD OR ACCOUNT, EITHER WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE."

"You agree that we and our service providers may send you, by short message service (with an opportunity to opt-out), by e-mail, and/or by other methods...other offers, including without limitation welcome messages, information, alerts, surveys and other requests for information, advertisements, and/or promotions of all kinds."

"YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND, AND HOLD YOUR CARRIER HARMLESS FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL CLAIMS, LIABILITY, DAMAGES, EXPENSES AND COSTS ... INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY CLAIM BY YOUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION THAT YOU DID NOT HAVE AUTHORITY OR OTHERWISE DID NOT PROPERLY GRANT AUTHORIZATION FOR THE USE OF YOUR USERNAME, PASSWORD, OTHER AUTHORIZATION CREDENTIALS, OR OTHERWISE IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF OR ACCESS TO YOUR ACCOUNT(S)."

"You understand that we are using the account aggregation technology and related services of CashEdge Inc. and/or other third parties to operate and provide the Service."

Important reminder to read the find print in our contracts.

This type of thing is allowed because they know regular folks will not read through it. Shouldn't privacy and an individual's rights be protected as a default? That's what most people assume and that is why most people do not read the fin print.

If we don't take care of ourselves... who will?