Gotta add my voice here. I've been following this thread for several months now, and it has been appalling to watch as QB support staff offer up obvious hogwash (e.g., "better security") when they're not just misunderstanding the question.

Stating the same complaint another way,

QB comes in a desktop version. And in an online version. Those of us participating in this thread could have bought the online version, but instead we chose to buy the desktop version, for reasons. And for an apparent majority of us, the critical reason for choosing the desktop version was the increased security we get from not exposing our data to any other party, including Intuit.

For Intuit to require this login is to open up a breach in the very security we were looking for in choosing the desktop version. Please stop pretending that this login affords us additional security. You know very well that it does not. Intuit must have some other reason for wanting us to expose our data, and whatever that reason is, we know that it is not in our interest.

So, rather than treat this as a question to be answered by support staff -- since we can see from the many pages of this thread how unsuccessful that has been -- please take it instead as a complaint and a suggestion: Stop requiring the login. We don't want it. We don't need it. We chose and paid for a product that didn't require it, and that's why we are here now.