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PayPal is planning an ad business using data on its shoppers
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- giancarlostoro 2y agoI guess they get to squeeze more money out of my transactions. I miss the days of boring ads that were contextual on the site you were on and not trying to pry into my life in creepy ways.
- JohnFen 2y agoPayPal is the last of my "dirty internet habits" that I've been whittling down. I think this provides me with more than enough motivation to finally get rid of it entirely.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoUnless you also don't use Visa/Mastercard/Amex, you're being hypocritical. PayPal is a better choice than any of those.
- JohnFen 2y agoHypocritical, or just haven't got that far in my efforts yet? Paypal is much easier to jettison than the others. Just because the others also spy on me doesn't mean I have some sort of responsibility to allow PayPal to do it as well. That said, I do indeed avoid using credit cards when I can. That's not always possible. However, it is always possible to avoid using PayPal.
- HenryBemis 2y agoJust for clarifications, the same applies for debit cards as well.
- Marsymars 2y agoI haven't put any effort in whittling down my use of PayPal, but my usage has dropped precipitously anyway, with online merchants adopting Shopify or Stripe, or consolidating to large marketplaces.
- open592 2y agoWhat are you going to replace it with for internet purchases?
- JohnFen 2y agoI've already dramatically reduced the amount of stuff I buy online. For things I have to buy online, I can just use one-time-use cards.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Zambyte 2y agoLike store bought gift cards, or an online service? If the latter, you're just shofting your trust somewhere else (which may be what you want, but it's worth making that explicitly understood).
- bitvoid 2y agoQuite a few banks, like Capital One, let you create one-time-use or temporary cards in their apps. So, not really shifting trust outside of the bank providing the account to begin with.
- Zambyte 2y agoWell before the bank would only see your transfers to PayPal, rather than where you're actually spending your money. You're shifting trust in the sense that it used to be PayPal seeing where you're spending your money to your bank seeing where you're spending your money.
- JohnFen 2y agoYes, but my bank already has deep insight into my spending habits anyway. Eliminating PayPal reduces the number of companies surveilling me by one. That seems like a net gain to me. And that's not even taking into account that I trust my bank more than I trust PayPal.
- violet13 2y agoBefore you say "another reason to stop using Paypal", keep in mind that credit card companies routinely share purchase data with online advertising companies. This is so that Google and others can tie online impressions to brick-and-mortar purchases, among other things. Paypal is playing catch-up.
- throwawayq3423 2y agoIs there any credit card or banking company that doesn't do this?
- JohnFen 2y agoTrue, but it's still a great reason to stop using PayPal.
- bhaney 2y agoAnother reason to stop using credit card companies
- yepguy 2y agoIt's worth noting that you can opt out of that too. You should have received a privacy disclosure with every credit card you've opened containing instructions on how to opt out. Usually you have to make a phone call - you won't find the option in your online banking portal.
- tensor 2y agoI thought that was only if you accept a "points plan" of some sort, which, of course we all do. :-/ Aeroplan is a great example of this too. No one ever asks what they are giving up for aeroplan. The answer is your entire purchase history! People often focus on how the internet allows cross-site tracking and other privacy invasions, but generally don't get vocal about things like credit cards and points plans that have done this since time before the internet!
- jasonjayr 2y agoIt's not widely known but lookup "Level 3 Data" when processing credit card transactions. Your whole receipt is sent to the CC companies, and used for ... well whatever you agreed to let them use it for. You read all the fine print, right?
- DueDilligence 2y ago[dead]
- knoebber 2y agoI’m surprised they weren’t doing this already . This is standard for CC companies afaik.
- rationalfaith 2y ago[dead]
- snowpid 2y agoVery typical for a American company to just assume their non American customer are equal to their American counterparts (+ regulation etc.)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- throwaway42668 2y agoUgh. Increasingly what bothers me about stuff like this is that we’re endlessly organizing more and more and more of our economic activity around marketing and advertising, and it chokes off the air-supply for so many other business models, products, and innovation pursuits. The data privacy part? Sure, that’s annoying and troublesome, but God help me… can there be more of a point to everything than targeting & delivering ads? It’s just depressing.
- squarefoot 2y ago> we’re endlessly organizing more and more and more of our economic activity around marketing and advertising That is the predictable result of a business model based on overproduction and obsolescence. There are already too many products and services compared to the number of pockets that could or want to buy them, therefore businesses struggle for potential customers attention. I don't see any sign of a change in the near future and am well prepared to see more and more space and time filled with advertising of some sort.