Mint is just a user-friendly wrapper on Yodlee, which integrates directly with the banks to get the data. The amount of data slurped is incredible -- basically, an RSS feed on your financial life.
Your government, in its infinite wisdom, has seen fit to protect you from unscrupulous American companies which could possibly record your data without complying with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. (Never heard of it? Your bank has.) This strengthened existing legislation, such as the Bank Act (never heard of it? Your bank has.), one section of which "requires banks to maintain and process in Canada any information or data relating to the preparation and maintenance of bank records, including customer account records".
Your government, in its infinite wisdom, has seen fit to protect you from unscrupulous American companies which could possibly record your data without complying with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. (Never heard of it? Your bank has.) This strengthened existing legislation, such as the Bank Act (never heard of it? Your bank has.), one section of which "requires banks to maintain and process in Canada any information or data relating to the preparation and maintenance of bank records, including customer account records".