“If you’re someone who’s buying products on the web, we know who is buying the products where, and we can leverage the data,” Grether said in a statement to the WSJ. He also said that PayPal will receive shopping data from customers using its credit card in stores.

A PayPal spokesperson tells the WSJ that the company will collect data from customers by default while also offering the ability to opt out.

PayPal is far from the only company to sell ads based on transaction information. In January, a study from Consumer Reports revealed that Facebook gets information about users from thousands of different companies, including retailers like Walmart and Amazon. JPMorgan Chase also announced that it’s creating an ad network based on customer spending data, while Visa is making similar moves. Of course, this doesn’t include the tracking shopping apps do to log your offline purchases, too.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    It should be completely illegal for these companies to just completely fucking change the nature of our agreements decades later. This is bullshit.

  • BlueTardis@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    In the beginning PayPal was needed due to credit cards not working for international payments. Now not so much. They are giving you a reason to leave.

  • boogetyboo@aussie.zone
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    6 months ago

    I’m so over this. So exasperated by it. Every company in a scramble to the bottom. Meanwhile my country’s reporting a downturn in FOOD spending because people are fucking poor.

    We’re being bombarded with ads at every turn, having our data sold off, stolen, or repurposed for LLMs… Meanwhile the customer experience gets worse and worse.

    I work in digital ux and honestly, I just want to unplug and go live in a cave.

    • bfg9k@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Been interested in computers since childhood, and have been working in the IT industry for over a decade now.

      I would love to take a sledgehammer to all of my stupid customer’s servers and go live on a farm. The future we made for ourselves is fucking retarded.

    • Pantoffel@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      The sad thing is that even if you really wanted to go off the grid, live in a cave, and rediscover the fire, you wouldn’t be allowed to.

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Microcenter shares purchases with Facebook. Even when you shop at the store.

  • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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    6 months ago

    Pretty sure my local bank has been doing this for a few years now. I thought I was losing it, but apparently it’s a thing.

    Only thing that pisses me off (besides the obvious fact that its my bank doing this, and i dont want ads) is that I get ads for the same stuff I just bought. If your supposed to be some all knowing awesome algorithm that understands me better than I understand myself, send me ads for stuff I might actually want, but haven’t bought yet. Not, literally, the same thing I bought two days ago, and have no need for, for at least another month. Idiots.

  • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I assume most things advertised in apps and websites to be low quality or scammy. I hate advertising enough that I actually avoid any large company that throws ads in my face because I assume they can no longer rely on their reputations and arr no longer the value they were when they rose to prominence.

    • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Hegemony? eBay and Play Store are the only places I’ve seen PayPal for the last decade

      • gnygnygny@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        As of 2022, PayPal operates in 202 markets and has 426 million active, registered accounts.+700 000 corporates accept PayPal payment, top 1000 : 72%. 1.5 billions in transactions. They own iZettle, Honey, Braintree, venmo, curv, paidy, gopay, … I think hegemony was the right word.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    6 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The company’s new advertising business will encompass purchase information and customer spending habits from PayPal and its sister app Venmo, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    A PayPal spokesperson tells the WSJ that the company will collect data from customers by default while also offering the ability to opt out.

    When asked about the kinds of data PayPal will collect, spokesperson Taylor Watson told The Verge that the advertising platform is still in “early stages” and that the company doesn’t have “definitive answers” yet.

    “Alongside the advertising business, PayPal will build transparent, easy-to-use privacy controls,” Watson says.

    In January, a study from Consumer Reports revealed that Facebook gets information about users from thousands of different companies, including retailers like Walmart and Amazon.

    JPMorgan Chase also announced that it’s creating an ad network based on customer spending data, while Visa is making similar moves.


    The original article contains 325 words, the summary contains 143 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • ChallengeApathy@infosec.pub
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    6 months ago

    I really wish there were another option. The only other option is to give raw credit card data to vendors, which is horrible for security given all the data breaches that happen. And no, card masking services like Privacy.com aren’t an option when they’re requiring your SSN (which is a load of BS).

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    As far as data goes, purchase data is one I can live with businesses doing this kinda stuff with. I’m using their platform to complete the sale, so it’d make sense to me they’d have data of that sale. And it makes sense to me that a business would leverage that data in ways to benefit themselves.

    Someone tell me if I should be concerned, but this seems like what everyone else has done as long as they’ve been able to do it.

    • hikaru755@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      And it makes sense to me that a business would leverage that data in ways to benefit themselves.

      Big fat nope on that one. This is exactly what the GDPR is about. I’m giving you my data for a specific purpose, and unless I tell you otherwise, you have no fucking business using that data for anything else. Gonna be interesting to see how this one plays out in the EU.

    • applepie@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      Thw issue is aggregation of all of the data into mega datasets that are used to fix prices.

      A lot of the inflation we are seeing recently is literally result of these dataset being compiled.

      They know how much you make, how much you save etc so they can determine how much they can extract from you esp once you add behavioral data. We are all profiled and they know what you like.

      Although fast food seems to finally hit a wall on that…

      • variants@possumpat.io
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        6 months ago

        The worst part is that it doesn’t just affect you, it’ll make it much easier to profile new users going forward so future generations will be screwed over even more. Imagine your insurance prices or phone bill being calculated by your max tolerance you would pay before searching for a different provider

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          6 months ago

          we started down this path when we all signed for cash back credit card tbh…

          but yes data does have a snow ball property… and boy have we hit critical mass. at this point, i doubt any of this can be reverted or even properly countered.

          Best we can do is small direct action since the government sold out us and will side with mega corps.

  • gravitywell@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I’m kinda surprised to hear they didn’t already do that… I guess I just assumed that was the entire point of them acquiring “honey” and had been doing it since at least that point.