How we protect and store personal information

Throughout this policy, we use the term "personal information" to describe information that can be associated with a specific person and can be used to identify that person. We do not consider personal information to include information that has been anonymized so that it does not identify a specific user.

We store and process your personal information on our computers in the US, and we protect it by maintaining physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in compliance with applicable US federal and state regulations. We use computer safeguards such as firewalls and data encryption, we enforce physical access controls to our buildings and files, and we authorize access to personal information only for those employees who require it to fulfill their job responsibilities.

How we use the personal information we collect

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. We may use your personal information to:

• provide the services and customer support you request;
• process transactions and send notices about your transactions
• resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
• prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our User Agreement;
• customize, measure, and improve our services and the content and layout of our website;
• send you targeted marketing, service update notices, and promotional offers based on your communication preferences;
• compare information for accuracy and verify it with third parties.

How we share personal information with other PayPal users

To process your payments, we need to share some of your personal information with the person or company that you are paying or is paying you. Your contact information, date of sign-up, the number of payments you have received from verified PayPal users, and whether you have verified control of a bank account are provided to other PayPal users who you transact with through PayPal.

If you are buying goods or services and pay through PayPal, we may also provide the seller with your confirmed credit card billing address to help complete your transaction with the seller. The seller is not allowed to use this information to market their services to you unless you have agreed to it.

We work with merchants to enable them to accept payments from you using PayPal. In doing so, a merchant may share information about you with us, such as your email address, when you attempt to pay that merchant. We use this information to confirm to that merchant that you are a PayPal customer and that the merchant should enable PayPal as a form of payment for your purchase.

Regardless, we will not disclose your credit card number or bank account number to anyone you have paid or who has paid you through PayPal, except with your express permission or if we are required to do so to comply with a subpoena or other legal process.

How we share personal information with other parties

We may share your personal information with:

• Members of the eBay Inc. corporate family -- like eBay, Shopping.com or Skype -- to provide joint content and services (like registration, transactions and customer support), to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about their products, services and communications. Members of our corporate family will use this information to send you marketing communications only if you have requested their services.
• Service providers under contract who help with parts of our business operations; (fraud prevention, bill collection, marketing, technology services). Our contracts dictate that these service providers only use your information in connection with the services they perform for us and not for their own benefit.
• Financial institutions that we partner with to jointly create and offer a product such as the PayPal Plus credit card where we share information with GE Money Bank to determine whether you should receive pre-approved offers for the PayPal Plus credit card. These financial institutions may only use this information to market PayPal-related products, unless you have given consent for other uses.
• Credit bureaus to report outstanding negative balance accounts, as allowed by law.
• Companies that we plan to merge with or be acquired by. (Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information could be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice.)
• Law enforcement, government officials, or other third parties when
  • we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order or similar legal procedure
  • we need to do so to comply with law
  • we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of our User Agreement.
• Other third parties with your consent or direction to do so.

PayPal will not sell or rent any of your personal information to third parties in the normal course of doing business and only shares your personal information with third parties as described in this policy.

How you can restrict PayPal from sharing your personal information

Federal and state laws allow you to restrict the sharing of your personal information in certain instances. However, these laws also state that you cannot restrict other types of sharing. Because we have chosen to refrain from certain types of data sharing, the only type of sharing of your personal information that you may restrict is as follows:

If you do not want PayPal to share your personal information with other financial institutions for the purpose of marketing our jointly offered products to you, please log in to your account and uncheck the box in the Information Sharing section of the Notifications and Information Sharing page. This page can be accessed by going to the Profile subtab under the My Account tab.

You can also control how we use your contact information to market our services to you in the notifications preferences.

How you can access or change your personal information

You can review and edit your personal information at any time by logging in to your account and clicking the Profile subtab under the My Account tab.

How you can contact us about privacy questions