PayPal is updating its privacy statement with a troubling change next month. PayPal updates its policies so often that it’s hard to keep up. This time they intend to begin sharing information about your shopping history, which is a substantial change.

The service wants to “help improve your shopping experience” by sharing information with merchants. If you live in a state with weak privacy laws (most of them¹), you must opt out to prevent that. The U.S. summary of upcoming PayPal policies is at https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/upcoming-policies-full?locale.x=en_US. Past policy updates are kept here https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/archive-policies-full.

To opt out before November 27, 2024, after logging in, select the settings gear near the log out link in the upper right. Then select the tab “Data and Privacy.” About half-way down select the section “Personalize Shopping.” Within that category is a checkbox “Personalize shopping.” If you toggle it off, you will prevent them from sharing your confidential data.

The November 2024 date is when the policy statement takes effect, but you can opt out at any time. The summary text says that they’ll start sharing the data in summer 2025 but the actual privacy statement doesn’t mention 2025. I’m not sure what conclusion to draw from that.

If you want to limit the spread of your shopping history between vendors, go toggle the setting off. If you’re comfortable with another feature eroding your privacy, you don’t need to do anything.

1. Only California, North Dakota and Vermont are opt-in. ↩︎