Do you use PayPal?
p2pnet.net News:- For quite a while p2pnet carried a warning suggesting people who’re concerned about keeping personal data secure should think very carefully before giving it to the online payment service PayPal.
Doing so is hard to avoid, especially if you’re selling something (a p2p app, for example), making a donation (to the developers of an indie p2p app, for example), if you’re buying something (a p2p app, for example) or perhaps buying a track or CD from the indie music community.
Why did we put the warning up? Because PayPal is owned by eBay and eBay, associates and interested parties get to see ‘confidential’ PayPal customer records – name, address, phone number, bank account info, credit card info, and so on. And eBay is willing to give investigators everything it knows about visitors to its web site, states Joe Sullivan, its director of ‘law enforcement and compliance’.
All they have to do is ask.
In the meanwhile, "eBay’s PayPal unit recently reached a settlement with customers who accused the company of illegally freezing their funds," says ZDNet here. "As a result, PayPal said it would pay a total of $9.25 million to settle the federal class-action suit, $3.4 million of which would go to paying its customers’ legal fees.
"PayPal admitted no wrongdoing in settling the claims, which were filed in 2002 as part of two federal class-action suits that also alleged other customer service deficiencies."
In March PayPal admitted it misled people into believing it offers credit-card-style protection and told New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer, it will in future "be more open with the exact level of protection it offers its 25 million customers".
