PayPal openly moving to selling personal data

[SpyderTracks]

So, the more I've learnt about the Musk character in recent years, the more I've started moving away from any of his services.

One I used extremely heavily was PayPal, for online transactions, it had extremely good cover options, although it turned out for most of my purchases (records) as they were pre orders often made 6 months before release, the protections had expired by the time it came to needing them.

I did use PayPal a few times though for dodgy purchases and they always came through. EBay in that respect are superb also, they really take buyer feedback.

But with PayPal, they've just admitted publicly that they'll be moving to an advertising model which means they'll be selling your personal data to the highest bidder, and it's those buyers that worry me with their intentions, and given Elon's recent admissions and court cases, I'm not sure his morals are quite in line with mine.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/paypal-advertising-business-customers-b2552765.html

PayPal is launching an ad sales business based on user behavior data

PayPal appoints new leaders amid ads shakeup

www.techradar.com

As such, I'm clearing my accounts at the end of this month and closing it, there are some excellent alternatives out there that are actually even more amenable as they don't rely on the site using PayPal (which more and more were starting to move away from).

Check out Monzo Flex, and Halifax Clarity (thanks @Scott) for alternative options.

As with any credit, always be careful. All these options are zero % IF you use them wisely, but as with any credit, there is always the temptation to wrack up payments that can become difficult to pay back quite quickly.

 

[Martinr36]

I only ever used the normal paypal, but deffo sounds like its time to say goodbye to them, if they are going to flog info

 

[SpyderTracks]

I only ever used the normal paypal, but deffo sounds like its time to say goodbye to them, if they are going to flog info

It’s really bad. It’s also the kinds of ads they’ll promote, on Twitter, the ads are predominantly for betting sites, or dropship ads, crypto scams or flat out scandals. It’s almost more uncommon for an ad not to have a community notes warning people than it is to have anything wholesome.

Dropship ads for those that don’t know are ads spun up by AI, for prdcuts that don’t exist, they then get feedback via the number of clicks of its worth it and then try and source it. It’s a scam, basically, 9 times out of 10 you’ll never receive it, the 1 time you do, the quality is so poor it works once and then fails.

 

[TonyCarter]

Since eBay sold Paypal...and this stopped making offering it mandatory, I think I only use it for Microsoft purchases and forum donations.

If they can tell that I'm a single-player gamer who likes cars from that, then so be it!

 

[Martinr36]

Finally got mine closed, they don't make it easy, having to cancel all the auto payments 1 at a time, even if multiple ones to same merchant

 

[SpyderTracks]

Finally got mine closed, they don't make it easy, having to cancel all the auto payments 1 at a time, even if multiple ones to same merchant

I’m still struggling to get mine shut, removed all the connected payment methods, had deleted any connected services, still won’t close.

Really annoys me, kind of want to report them to Ofcom, no way it should be this difficult

 

[Martinr36]

Took me ages, kept telling me I'd got recurring payments, finally got the message that I'd no longer got any, think the thing that makes it harder. is each time you cancel one it shows the inactive ones, and you have to go back to the active ones

 

[SpyderTracks]

Took me ages, kept telling me I'd got recurring payments, finally got the message that I'd no longer got any, think the thing that makes it harder. is each time you cancel one it shows the inactive ones, and you have to go back to the active ones

I think there’s a delay after you’ve removed everything til it actually clears it. I still had pay in 3s that needed settling too, those were all cleared end of last week. I’ll leave it another day and try again.

 

[TonyCarter]

Just checked, and I have 2 recurring payments. Both to individuals, despite being for forum donations, so not sure they can even build a profile from just two personal account names.

I suppose I could switch them both over to bank account, debit card, credit card subscriptions, but that just moves the advertising collection to another party (as you just know they're already doing it).

But it's not much worse than your Costco, Ikea, Tesco, M&S membership cards that are used to 'target' offers at you.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just checked, and I have 2 recurring payments. Both to individuals, despite being for forum donations, so not sure they can even build a profile from just two personal account names.

I suppose I could switch them both over to bank account, debit card, credit card subscriptions, but that just moves the advertising collection to another party (as you just know they're already doing it).

But it's not much worse than your Costco, Ikea, Tesco, M&S membership cards that are used to 'target' offers at you.

My fear is that they'll take a Meta approach and you'll sign over access to microphone and camera as well as location data just by having the app installed.

This is baseless fear currently, there's absolutely no suggestion this would be the case, they haven't announced any terms of the new advertising criteria, it's just how I expect advertising techniques these days.

 

[TonyCarter]

My fear is that they'll take a Meta approach and you'll sign over access to microphone and camera as well as location data just by having the app installed.

This is baseless fear currently, there's absolutely no suggestion this would be the case, they haven't announced any terms of the new advertising criteria, it's just how I expect advertising techniques these days.

They'd probably start advertising toilet paper to me then, due to the amount of crap I'm normally spouting

Although on a more serious note, I wonder how this 'electronic spying' would go down with GDPR/ICO, considering I work on some very projects where am constantly discussing / sharing confidential, proprietary, protected information?

They might even use it to bet on the date of the next election, or buy shares when I'm talking about an early, internal result of a clinical drug trial.

 

[Martinr36]

No idea where some of the ads in my facebook stream turn up from, I know I click the X on all of them and report as spam

 

[TonyCarter]

No idea where some of the ads in my facebook stream turn up from, I know I click the X on all of them and report as spam

Well I know there's something on this website that Apple's Safari isn't blocking (well, I do have it set as 'trusted', so my own fault), because if I launch youtube with the forum open I get PCS and Curry's averts before every video. If I close the forum page down I tend to get Hello Fresh, Bellvoy, or holiday adverts...none of which remotely interest me.

 

[Paul1964]

Why the comments about Elon Musk? He was one of the creators of PayPal but has not been involved with it for years now. Didn't he sell it to eBay?

Yeah he's a bit of a weirdo and has made some questionable decisions but any current PayPal shenanigans are nothing to do with him.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Why the comments about Elon Musk? He was one of the creators of PayPal but has not been involved with it for years now. Didn't he sell it to eBay?

Yeah he's a bit of a weirdo and has made some questionable decisions but any current PayPal shenanigans are nothing to do with him.

If you research Peter Thiel who is on the board of PayPal, him and Elon are extremely intertwined.

There's a lot more at this level of business than just who owns the company.

 

[Paul1964]

If you research Peter Thiel who is on the board of PayPal, him and Elon are extremely intertwined.

There's a lot more at this level of business than just who owns the company.

I get what you say but I reckon he's probably got his hands full with SpaceX, Tesla and Twatter - sorry 'X'.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I get what you say but I reckon he's probably got his hands full with SpaceX, Tesla and Twatter - sorry 'X'.

If you're only looking at it as people doing business, that's where you're going wrong.

Look into Thiel, Musk and Murdoch.

Business is secondary to what they want. It's not about companies.