Getting a little creepy

This morning I got a message "Service Agent program QS9USRMSG
encountered an error - action required." along with "Service Agent Auto
PTF function has started."  This sounded sort of important, so I looked
at the messages in detail and they said that I needed to "GO SERVICE".
Well, in order to GO SERVICE, you have to jump through some hoops.  In
short, I had to key in what is in effect registration information like
you would see for any $29 shareware product, and then I had to set a
system value (QRETSVRSEC) to '1'.  This value "determines whether the
security data needed by a server to authenticate a user on a target
system through client-server interfaces can be retained on the host
system."

If I had to guess, this SOUNDS like it allows my i5 to cache passwords
for later unattended use.

Anybody know what's going on here?  Is the service agent a way for my
machine to talk to the mothership?  Is it benign?  Friendly?  The IBM
representative says it's no big deal, but I am just a little leery when
something asks me to change a security parameter.

Joe