New Paypal "research initiatives": real research or Trojan Horse for more Big Brother Surveillance?

New Paypal

PayPal changed the world for the better with their easy-access, consumer friendly peer-to-peer platform. They have long been a champion of the people in the never-ending struggle to achieve equitable treatment from traditional banks, as well as freedom from archaic banking constructs and limitations. For these reasons, we have accepted PayPal payments since our inception.

As time has gone on, Paypal has decided to expand their efforts beyond payment processing to explore who is paying who and for what, and share this information as they see fit.

Wait, what?

More specifically, recently PayPal announced that they will be conducting "research initiatives" and "the intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement." They announced this openly in a joint press release with the ADL (you can read it here).

If you're like us, even given the best of intentions, this feels like a direct threat to freedom -- the opposite of what PayPal once stood for when Elon Musk and Peter Thiel started it after merging their two digital payment platforms. The more that transactions are scrutinized, evaluated, and judged unilaterally by "experts," the more potential for bad actors in centralized authorities to manipulate this information and encroach upon your privacy, or worse. If you rely on PayPal alone, your ability to transact could be cut off entirely until you "get in line".

We're not going to tell you what to do, and we are not going to "cancel" PayPal as a payment option on our website, and we aren't going to tax people who choose to use PayPal. Use it if you so desire; its utility to some of you may outweigh the downside. You may even agree with and support their efforts; that is certainly your prerogative. We will continue to do our best to empower individuals to be the greatest version of themselves, maximizing your opportunity to choose the platform that works best for you. To this end, we offer a wide spectrum of payment options, including all major credit cards via Shop Pay (preferred) and Apple Pay, and even some forms of cryptocurrency, among other choices.

"A people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives" - James Madison. 


2 comments


  • JM

    We should all take a stance against all these woke corporations, soon before we lose all our liberties. I have already stopped using PayPal years ago. Everything woke turns to shit…


  • W M

    This is not how a company should handel private information of its costumers.


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.