Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

seafile.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 348 posts

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#111

Post by pantalaimon »

mschuster91 wrote: post #33
ladybro wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the alternatives in Europe that make Paypal not needed? Genuinely curious, not saying you're wrong by any means.

Germany: SEPA direct debit, sofortueberweisung.de, giropay, and if you're willing to put up with PCI compliance bullshit, credit cards. All three are vastly cheaper than PP, too.

sofortueberweisung is kinda shady though - don't you have to agree that they are allowed to read your transaction history? Since you give them full access to your online banking account, they certainly are able to.

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#112

Post by Cthulhu_ »

daix wrote: post #61
uncletammy wrote: post #23

I don't think they need regulation. I think they need to carry on like they are for a few more years so I can watch them be eaten alive by crypto currencies and other fintech innovations.

I think the problem is that PayPal almost have a monopoly on e-commercial market, and because of the stickiness of users, it's hard to break the monopoly.

There's plenty of alternative payment providers that should work just fine for most people (credit cards, bank payment portals, etc).

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#113

Post by anfogoat »

raverbashing wrote: post #24

Paypal only exists because the current infrastructure of payments in the US is a joke Nobody needs paypal in Europe. Of course, they try to sell themselves as "the easiest way" (which is right to a point) but it's mostly unneeded

I don't get the praise; it took two days for a SEPA transfer to finish last time I initiated one. For buying goods online, that's 47 hours too long.

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#114

Post by simonswords82 »

oarsinsync wrote: post #73
simonswords82 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason PayPal continues to be provided with the opportunity to fuck people over is primarily due to their low financial/technical barriers to entry. A website can be configured to accept PayPal payments in less than half a day, and setting up a new PayPal account is a very straightforward process. Compare this with setting up a merchant account to take payments (here in the UK), which takes weeks, involves findin…

I deployed Nochex instead of PayPal back in 2005, and it took less than half a day, and came with guaranteed no chargebacks on UK payments and lower fees. Good PayPal competitors have existed in this space for a long time. PayPal still remains.

So is it the sheer dominance of the PayPal brand?

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#115

Post by ionised »

dagw wrote: post #35
beobab wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barclays and Natwest in the UK will allow you to send money to anyone with an email address. Can't speak for other banks, though. But all banks will transfer money if you have a recipient account number and sort code.

Barclays and Natwest in the UK will allow you to send money to anyone with an email address. Anyone? Anyone in the UK? Or anyone in the UK with a Barclays or Natwest account? Paypal is still probably the quickest and easiest way to send money to 'anyone' in the world.

PayPal just seems like extra steps if your bank lets you do a straight transfer.

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#116

Post by Matt3o12_ »

I wonder if legal action can be taken against PayPal for demanding this kind of information. PayPal blackmailed them into breaking a law (they didn't break it but they suffered financial loss from not doing it).

If I told a customer who absolutely depends on my business to harass/attack somebody, I would certainly hold liable as well.

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#117

Post by benevol »

nakodari wrote: post #101

Another victim of Paypal here. I run Jumpshare, a file sharing and collaboration service for creative professionals. This is what Paypal sent us: "May 8, 2016: When you signed up for your PayPal account, you agreed to our User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy. Because some of your recent transactions violated this policy, we've had to permanently limit your account. Please remove any references to PayPal from your…

Having read during the last few years about the endless horror stories businesses have endured with PayPal, I honestly don't understand why anyone would still use PayPal when there clearly are alternatives (be that US companies like Stripe or EU companies like Paymill).

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#118

Post by Draiken »

I'm once again astonished with how much control of our businesses is simply out of our hands.

When looking at practices these financial institutions use it makes me wonder what can't they do?

Everyone cites "regulations", but as far as I understand, they make the regulations. Directly or indirectly.

Take for example the known cases where PayPal freezes accounts holding people's money. If I take someone else's money and refuse to give it back to them, it's a crime in pretty much every nation. But when banks and financial institutions do that, they get away scot-free (with maybe some small rants from the internet) and keep doing this systematically profiting in almost all cases.

If we're not bound to middle men like Stripe and PayPal, we're bound to Visa and Mastercard. Is there any way out of this madness?

Re: “PayPal has demanded that we monitor data traffic as well as customers’ files”

#120

Post by raverbashing »

anfogoat wrote: post #113
raverbashing wrote: post #24

Paypal only exists because the current infrastructure of payments in the US is a joke Nobody needs paypal in Europe. Of course, they try to sell themselves as "the easiest way" (which is right to a point) but it's mostly unneeded

I don't get the praise; it took two days for a SEPA transfer to finish last time I initiated one. For buying goods online, that's 47 hours too long.

Ah true, for online, real time purchasing, it takes too long

But for other things it's ok

Post reply on HN