PayPal is planning an ad business using data on its shoppers

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-is-planning-an-ad-business-using-data-on-its-millions-of-shoppers-cc5e0625

by notrealyme123 • 2 years ago

47 30 2 years ago

I 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.

JohnFen6• 2 years ago

PayPal 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• 2 years ago

Unless you also don't use Visa/Mastercard/Amex, you're being hypocritical. PayPal is a better choice than any of those.

JohnFen6• 2 years ago

Hypocritical, 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.

open592• 2 years ago

What are you going to replace it with for internet purchases?

JohnFen6• 2 years ago

I'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.

pquki42• 2 years ago

Manually typing credit card numbers?

Autofill makes it a lot easier as well.

Marsymars• 2 years ago

I 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.

violet13• 2 years ago

Before 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• 2 years ago

Is there any credit card or banking company that doesn't do this?

JohnFen6• 2 years ago

True, but it's still a great reason to stop using PayPal.

bhaney• 2 years ago

Another reason to stop using credit card companies

yepguy• 2 years ago

It'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• 2 years ago

I 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!

jasonjayr2• 2 years ago

It'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?

Semaphor2• 2 years ago

I looked it up, and it seems L3 is only used by Visa and MC, and only for B2B/B2G.

Could you link a source supporting your claims?

knoebber• 2 years ago

I’m surprised they weren’t doing this already . This is standard for CC companies afaik.

snowpid2• 2 years ago

Very typical for a American company to just assume their non American customer are equal to their American counterparts (+ regulation etc.)

Semaphor2• 2 years ago

They are registered as a bank in EU, it's not as if they don't know about different regulations.

snowpid2• 2 years ago

So why does the C-Suite ignores GDPR and other data protection acts around the world? Why assume regulation is similar to the USA world wide?

throwaway42668• 2 years ago

Ugh. 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• 2 years 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.

PayPal is planning an ad business using data on its shoppers

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