Why You Shouldn’t Use PayPal to Send Tips on Twitter
What a mess. No sooner had Twitter unveiled its new Tip Jar feature – which allows anyone using an English-language app (at least during deployment) to send money to a small group of Twitter users they’d like to support – how serious privacy shortcomings were found in what would otherwise have to be an innocent way to plant a few dollars on people.
While I usually spent this time complaining about how annoying the slow rollout of features is, I’m actually grateful that Twitter isn’t letting everyone create their own tip jars right now. There are several feature issues associated with using PayPal to fund these tips – one of the many payment methods available – and are worth knowing about before you accidentally, say, send your home address to some random person on the Internet. …
This potentially catastrophic risk to your personal privacy was first discovered by security researcher Rachel Toback, who shared her findings in a tweet:
While Twitter plans to take additional steps to let users know that their personal data may be transferred as part of the tip process, this whole issue is actually an issue that needs to be addressed more by PayPal. I have not heard a squeak about this.
As more people started digging into PayPal-based tips, there are a few more privacy features that have emerged. For example, if you set up a tip jar and link it to PayPal, but you don’t have the PayPal nickname , anyone who sends a tip will be able to see the email address you linked to PayPal. (They don’t even need to complete the transaction.) If this is your personal email address, which you would rather not have publicly available, well, no luck. Better to get this nickname as soon as possible.
We’re not done yet. If you take a close look at Rachel’s tweet from above, you will notice that PayPal takes a commission as part of the tip transaction:
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has used PayPal to send money, well, ever. But there is a curious interaction between fees and privacy that you also need to be aware of if you plan on tipping someone for their work on Twitter.
My advice? Do not under any circumstances use PayPal for these transactions. If you have to tip someone on Twitter – a practice I sincerely encourage if you find value in their work or poignancy – fund it entirely through another service. Currently, you can choose from Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, and Venmo, which should be more than enough for a random random donation. Leave PayPal in case information like your address really matters (eBay). Do not give random Twitter users access to this information for anything.