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PayPal Will Be Able To Robo-Text/Call Users With No Opt-out Starting July 1

Posted by Soulskill on from the change-your-listed-phone-number-to-their-customer-support-line dept.

OutOnARock notes that as PayPal separates from eBay in the coming months, new terms of service are set to take effect on July 1st. Most of the changes unexciting, but one provision has consumer rights groups up in arms: PayPal is granting itself the ability to use automated systems to call and text users. These robocalls could happen for something as serious as debt collection or as frivolous as advertisements. What's more, the company grants the same rights to its affiliates. Activists are questioning the legality of these changes. "Given that both the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (which created the Do Not Call list) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ban most robocalling and texting, this seemed in direct opposition to consumer protections granted Americans by Congress." PayPal says it will comply with all laws, but their actions may spark a legal debate about whether terms of service can qualify as "written consent."

4 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. You have given Paypal your phone number? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why?

  2. Customer recourse by serano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Say you sign up with a company when their T&C says they won't use your phone number for marketing, but then they change their T&C to state the opposite. Now they have your phone number. Are they bound by the T&C they stated when you signed up? But even if they are, what is a customer's recourse? If someone were to sue, that would cost a lot of money, which would result in a settlement of probably little value. So what recourse is there for consumers?

    1. Re:Customer recourse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Or:

      888-225-5322, which is the FCC's consumer complaint line...

  3. Try it in the EU first by ledow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Go on, I dare you.

    Because when the Data Protection people jump on you for having something opt-out rather than opt-in, even with warning, then you'll realise what they do all day (i.e. fine companies that do this).

    Just because the US authorities are toothless in this regard, doesn't mean the rest of the world is.

    Go on. Send me a text or robocall that I didn't specifically authorise (and, no, agreeing to the new "forced" terms and conditions isn't the same). The absolute worst scenario? I tell you that I'm opting-out of them all. You EVER phone after that, you're going to end up having to answer to data protection lawsuits and - in my country at least - things like the Telephone Preference Service.

    I didn't give you explicit permission to do this, therefore you have no permission to do this. We can argue about the definition of "explicit" in court if you like, but the case law is pretty clear in this regard.