PayPal in FTC investigation
p2pnet.net News:- Are people who are concerned about keeping information about themselves confidential – addresses, phone numbers, banking information, and so on – smart to use online payment service PayPal?
Federal and state investigators are examining whether or not PayPal violated consumer-protection laws, says a Reuters report here.
And for quite a while p2pnet had a line at the bottom of each page specifically warning people about using PayPal.
A lot of sites and developers have PayPal buttons for donations and payments. And you have to admit – it is handy.
BUT – PayPal is owned by eBay, whose loyalties and interests are focused firmly on the bottom line. Or put another way, eBay isn’t particularly fussy about what happens to user information.
“eBay, ever anxious to up profits, bends over backward to provide data to law enforcement officials,” says haaretz.com here. “I don’t know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay’s,” says Joseph Sullivan.
Sullivan is eBay’s director of the “law enforcement and compliance”.
In its report, haaretz.com says Sullivan tells an audience that eBay is willing to hand over everything it knows about visitors to its Web site that might be of interest to an investigator. All they have to do is ask. “There’s no need for a court order,” Sullivan said.
“PayPal sometimes freezes customer accounts while it investigates suspicious transactions, a practice that has generated complaints to consumer-protection authorities, the online auctioneer said in its annual report,” Reuters states, continuing:
” ‘As a result of customer complaints, PayPal has … received inquiries regarding its restriction and disclosure practices from the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of a number of states,’ the report says.
“If PayPal’s processes are found to violate federal or state law on consumer protection and unfair business practices, it could be subject to an enforcement action or fines.”
