i.paypal.com: How PayPal Tracks Your Transactions

PayPal’s tracker, i.paypal.com, monitors your payment activity and online behavior for their financial services platform. This invasive tracking erodes your privacy for transaction processing. Here’s what it collects and how to resist.

What Is i.paypal.com?

PayPal uses i.paypal.com to track your interactions during transactions and account activity. It gathers data for security and analytics, undermining your anonymity. As Privacy Auditors, we’re concerned about this surveillance.

Data It Collects

When you use PayPal, it logs:

• IP Address: Pinpoints your location, often to city level.
• User ID: Tags you with a persistent identifier linked to your account.
• Session ID: Connects actions in a single session.
• Transaction Data: Records payment details, amounts, and recipient info.
• Device ID: Identifies your hardware for security.
• Page URL: Records pages where payments are initiated.
• Referrer URL: Tracks where you came from.
• Timestamps: Captures actions with millisecond timing.
• Cookie IDs: Uses identifiers for ongoing monitoring.

This builds a detailed profile of your payment behavior.

Who Gets Your Data?

PayPal shares your information with:

• PayPal’s internal systems: Processes transactions and security checks.
• Third-party analytics provider: Analyzes payment behavior.
• Merchant: Receives payment through PayPal.
• Legal authority: Accesses data under legal demands.

How to Protect Yourself

At Privacy Auditors Institute, we’re dedicated to safeguarding your privacy. Here’s how to minimize PayPal tracking:

• Use Tracker Blockers: Deploy Privacy Auditor tools to limit i.paypal.com scripts.
• Mask with a VPN: Hide your IP with a VPN like Mullvad to obscure location.
• Switch to Privacy Browsers: Use Firefox with strict settings or Tor Browser.
• Disable JavaScript: Prevent tracking scripts, though functionality may suffer.
• Clear Cookies Often: Wipe tracking cookies to disrupt profiling.

Combine these defenses to limit exposure to trackers like PayPal’s.

Sources

Data is sourced from:

• PayPal Privacy Policy: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full
• PayPal Website: https://www.paypal.com/

This is a legal disclaimer. All information is provided for educational purposes only.