PayPal is planning an ad business using data on its shoppers
wsj.com
wsj.com
Paypal is playing catch-up.
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?
Could you link a source supporting your claims?
https://www.thecreditchronicles.com/blog/tips-and-tricks-for...
> Another suggestion is to watch out for whether your store shares Level 3 (L3) data with your credit card company. These levels indicate how much information about your transaction is shared with the credit card company. L3 data includes the most amount of information, including itemized data about exactly what you purchased. If the store shares L3 data, your credit card company will be able to easily determine that you have been purchasing gift cards.
> Whether a store shares L3 data may be different for Visa and Amex transactions. For Amex transactions, you can look at your statement history on the web (not mobile) Amex website to see if they include an itemized list of what you purchased. If not, then no L3 data has been shared. Thus, we suggest starting by making a small purchase at the retailer to determine if they share L3 data, and only scale up if they do not.
The infrastructure is clearly in place, it's just a matter of if the agreement is in place and if the store is ready to sell out their customers for the discounted interchange rate. I was hoping to find a better link than a CC points hacking site discussing "manufactured spending", but that's what I could find easily. Grocery stores supporting EBT/SNAP/Benefits must have the infrastructure in place to support L3 data: that's how they determine if you the transaction is eligible or not.
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!
> If the latter, you're just shofting your trust somewhere else
Of course -- I'm shifting it to a bank that I already use. So, it still represents a privacy gain in that I'm cutting PayPal out and not bringing anybody new in.
And that's not even taking into account that I trust my bank more than I trust PayPal.
Autofill makes it a lot easier 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.
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.
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.