PayPal warned users against sharing their devices in an announcement about revisions to its terms of service earlier this week.
The company notified users about improvements to better protect the company, buyers, and sellers from any attempts to wrongfully use PayPal accounts.
The eBay-owned company made the changes in light of increased usage across different portable devices, such as cellphones and tablets, which increases the risk of theft or misuse of accounts by someone who isn’t the account owner. Two subsections under the heading “Keeping Your Payment Instrument Safe,” state that users must keep their personal information up to date and to “take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal electronic device through which you access the Services.”
This includes protecting pin and password information and “not sharing your device with other people,” the terms state. The company will consider it a breach in the agreement if users do not adhere to the new rules.
PayPal, however, emphasizes that it’s “not banning people from sharing devices.”
The company advises its users to not leave their computers unattended after logging in with PayPal information and to take extra precautions when sharing devices with another person to ensure the security of account information.
The announcement comes amid the discovery of the Heartbleed bug, the effects of which might be around for years. Recently, a study showed that 18 percent of American adults have had their personal information stolen online and 50 percent had concerns about the amount of private information available on the Internet.
The changes to the user agreement will take effect June 17. Those who do not wish to agree to PayPal’s changes can opt out and delete their account without penalty.
Photo by Adam Tinworth/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
