posted on June 10, 2001 11:38:55 AM
From their most recent email about their 'disclosure' policies:
We disclose the information we collect, as described in Section B above, to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements. These companies are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions that prohibit using the information except to market the specified PayPal-related products or services, unless you have affirmatively agreed or given your prior permission for other uses.
In other words PayPal will give out your info so you can be spammed (or worse) to any company they go into a joint venture with, such as co-branding! Here 'Paypal-related product' can mean toothpaste, for example...
posted on June 10, 2001 02:10:57 PM
You need to be paying more attention to your mail. I have received this same notice from credit card company, cable company, even the phone bill had this notice in it.
It is some federal requirement that we be notified of the privacy disclosure from each company we do business with. You have the right, and they have to give the right, to deny the passing on of your information.
I know that doesn't sound right but that is it in a nutshell.
posted on June 10, 2001 11:37:21 PM
I agree about what was the cause of the message, but I think you missed my main point.
Namely that PayPal while promising confidentiality on the one hand, is on the other deliberately creating a loophole big enough to steer a blimp through. In short, it is stating that it will give out user information, including potentially bank account numbers to any business they associate themselves with. Or, more bluntly - ANYONE THEY DAMN WELL FEEL LIKE!
posted on June 10, 2001 11:52:56 PM
Actually they are saying more than that - Paypal says that they have confidentiality and legal agreements that provide protection. In the event that you can prove that a company with these agreements has compromised your personal data best thing to do is to find an attorney that will work on consignment and go after that company as a deep pocket and make 'em shell out.
posted on June 11, 2001 08:27:57 AM
Privacy statements tend to be lengthy legalese that lacks ease of interpretation, but what's quoted seems to indicate PayPal is willing to sell information about you to at least some companies ("related" and "other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements" -- no opt-out for this part is implied, at least in the provided quotation). I would not care much whether or not "These [other] companies are subject to confidentiality agreements," as I'd already be annoyed that PayPal didn't keep my information to itself.
PP is far from the only one who does this. Privacy statements, though better than nothing, do often seem to have holes big enough to drive (ad-covered) blimps through, as pointed out, and many companies on and offline will sell you out, with or without a privacy statement. The list of such companies is long, but includes many credit bureaus, pharmacies (!), grocery stores, department stores, cable companies, banks, colleges, and so on.
So check those "privacy" or "rights" statements that offline companies you are doing business with send, and write to the addresses provided, and/or send in whatever opt-out forms they send. Write one of the three major credit bureaus, so you can get all three to stop selling you out (opting-out will get you opted-out of all three). Write the DMA so they can instruct their members (which supposedly includes about a third of all DMs) to stop marketing to you. (Note that most of these opt-outs will expire after 1-5 years, and you'll have to re-opt-out. )
I have also "voted" with my money, by refusing to spend online (except with eBay sellers) until the time if/when fully opt-in policies become the norm, and I do not have to spend an extra ten minutes trying to figure out whether their privacy statements imply that my purchasing their product will also increase my incoming load of junk. Offline, I at least have options that allow me to deny them the personal information they could use for both direct marketing (which I detest) and their own internal analysis of sales patterns (which I really don't mind). Most of what is online I can get offline anyway, so I don't feel I'm missing much, and what little I am missing, I can live without and save myself some bucks anyway.
So it isn't just PP by any stretch of the imagination, but just because many companies sell out their customers to direct marketers, doesn't make it right, either for them or for PayPal.
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What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
