PayPal is facing one trouble after the other since the release of its policy update stating that users can be fined up to $2,500 if caught spreading misinformation.
Searches for how to “delete PayPal” have skyrocketed to +1,400%, their stocks went down, and cybersecurity experts all over the world have been accusing them of using a dark pattern to keep the data of all the leaving users.
The trick is in the confirmation pop-up users will see once they click on “Close Your Account” under Account Preferences.
If you click on it, PayPal will indeed close your account but also keep all your data related to your transactions, payment gateways and accounts, and previous communications with their customer service. This is mentioned in their privacy statement.
This is what these cybersecurity experts call a “dark pattern”, and they believe PayPal is using it to prevent customers from selecting the 'delete your data' option, which is what they should do in order to protect their privacy before canceling their account.
Ivan Messina, CEO of SupportHost, has something to say about this accusation against PayPal as an online entrepreneur and developer of hosting packages for Magento and other eCommerce CMSs that handle 6-figures in transactions every year:
“Companies handling money like PayPal simply cannot delete all their users’ data. For example, as a web hosting provider, I am forced by the law to keep the invoices, which already include most of my customers’ data.
The same goes for all PayPal’s alternatives, like Wise, which as a financial institution, it must store some personal and transactional data for a minimum of 6 years.
With that being said, it is always best practice to request to delete your data and, most importantly, to withdraw your funds and cancel your preapproved payments on PayPal or any payment app, but remember that that doesn’t mean that they will be allowed to erase everything about you.”
About SupportHost:
SupportHost is a web hosting provider top rated on TrustPilot and one of the fastest growing worldwide thanks to the research and development of proprietary technologies pertaining to cybersecurity and server performance. They have recently been in the news for having set up a server 10x cheaper than Amazon AWS but still capable of handling peaks of 1.5 million visitors per day without any downtime.
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Website: https://supporthost.com/
