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PayPal takes a swipe at Apple Pay security over iCloud celebrity photo leaks

Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 4.08.24 PM

PayPal appears to be calling out Apple and its newly announced mobile payment service Apple Pay with an ad appearing in The New York Times print edition (via Pando Daily) indirectly reminding people of last month’s disastrous iCloud photo leak when a list of celebrities found their personal photos an intimate situations published on the web. The ad reads “We the people want our money safer than our selfies,” but PayPal isn’t without its own security issue in the past.

Apple already has over 500 million iTunes account with most having credit cards, the company says, and iCloud features like iCloud Keychain manage and utilize credit card data for auto-completing credit card information.

Starting next month, Apple will handle mobile payments in physical retailers and venues for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users, though, with Apple Pay. Apple says it never sees data about the transaction, though, which is secured using a combination of NFC, the iPhone’s secure enclave, and Touch ID fingerprint reader.

Check out the full PayPal ad below.
PayPal ad

(Image via Pando)

 

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Comments

  1. Mike Goodspeed - 10 years ago

    It’s funny, because I turned on “PayPay Security Key” which is their two-factor authentication, and now it won’t let me log into the app. So secure, I can’t use it!

  2. Felipe Milanez Gasparino - 10 years ago

    Poor PayPal! It’s just sad.

    • Aunty Troll (@AuntyTroll) - 10 years ago

      At this moment in time I don’t think Paypal are going to lose any sleep over this to be honest. Paypal is available on not only the iPhone, but also 3 times as many Android phones, a substantial number of which already have NFC built in. Apple Wallet with NFC is only available on the iPhone 6 and is only available in the US at a handful of banks and a handful of retailers so the scope is very limited at this moment in time. When and more importantly if it is rolled out worldwide Paypal may be sweating cobs, but until then I don’t think they have much to fear unless they take the bull by the horns. Shame really because Paypal are ridiculously expensive.

      • Jamie (@Lunnzies) - 10 years ago

        ApplePay is available on all devices running iOS8 from the 5 upwards.

        NFC contact-less payments are only available on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus or works with an iPhone 5 upwards if paired with an Apple Watch.

      • So pretty much it’s only available to the iphone 6/6s owners. Smartwatches are a fad right now, I cannot see people who have an iphone 5/5s buying a watch for $349 starting just to use Apple pay when you can upgrade the 5/5s to the iphone 6 for a cheaper price!! It makes no since.

  3. Dave Huntley - 10 years ago

    Hmm. it’s kind of twisting the truth… Not sure that says good things about PayPal.

  4. Jeffrey Feuerstein - 10 years ago

    Nooooooooo we need Paypal for Apple Pay to be successful!

  5. sdhn7 - 10 years ago

    I thought Apple don’t save any user info on their servers

  6. rogifan - 10 years ago

    So I guess PayPal is also taking a swipe at Visa, MasterCard, Amex and all the banks and retailers that are partnering with Apple on this?

  7. YU No - 10 years ago

    Somebody is scared…

  8. Says PayPal, who are well known for not giving a care about people…

    • flaviosuave - 10 years ago

      Indeed. Good luck to you if they decide to freeze your account for any reason and you want to get access to your own money.

  9. sdhn7 - 10 years ago

    i thought Apple don’t store any user data on their servers

  10. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    Yikes. They’re likely feeling the pressure from Apple Pay.

  11. ikir - 10 years ago

    Company using stupidity for advertising are awful. There were no iCloud leaks, just stupid passwords as the script showed. But users are retarded, specially who cries “privacy!”

  12. hmurchison - 10 years ago

    Whistling through the Graveyard.

  13. acslater017 - 10 years ago

    I heard ApplePay was actually born in Kenya.

  14. Having a company like PayPal mislead and lie in this way make me want to stop using their service.

  15. French me. That’s ripe.

    • airmanchairman - 10 years ago

      You’re telling me! PayPal, of all maggots in the can, flinging poo at others.
      Incroyable!

  16. Daniel Roose - 10 years ago

    Hilarious. PayPal will securely hold your money for as long as they want. I don’t just want security, Paypal. I want a system that also works. A rock is the most secure smartphone on the market, but it’s usability leaves much to be desired.

  17. MurphyMac (@murphymac) - 10 years ago

    At the end of January there were plenty of stories about PayPal wanting to partner with Apple on payments. Sour grapes.

  18. patstar5 - 10 years ago

    Why doesn’t paypal do nfc payments? They could even hook it up with PayPal credit and have there own credit card. Is Google wallet the only one who has been doing it the past 2 years? Thinking of registering so I can do it on my android phone.

  19. encogneato - 10 years ago

    So PayPal, the Comcast of the payments world suddenly wants to be buddy buddy with its users?

    Sorry guess. Should have thought about that before treating your customers like utter shit.

  20. rb1020 - 10 years ago

    That’s funny because I have Pay Pal and I have been hacked twice and not once on Apple. All this hate for one Company when they come out with something new. When your #1 bully people want to HATE on you.

  21. zmac11 - 10 years ago

    Paypal has some nerve, with their less than prestigious record. I’m sure the boffins at Apple are more keen on keeping payment info safe than Paypal is. Don’t they have something like 500 million iTunes accounts? Seems they’ve been keeping it safe all along.

  22. standardpull - 10 years ago

    It looks pretty bad for PayPal – Paypals model doesn’t hold any water given theiir high fees and PayPal has a high fraud rate too making reduction of those fees, um, a challenge.

    Let’s see if PayPal can do anything to advance the industry and their business other than a weak marketing campaign.

  23. boardflyer (@boardflyer) - 10 years ago

    I can’t wait until Apple creates a Apple Checkout for online payments that lets me sign in with my phone and I don’t have to enter my goddam address. I friggin hate sites that allow checkout with Paypal but still bring you back to the retailers site to enter address, phone, etc… This isn’t 100% Painpal’s fault but they have allowed merchants to get away with this bad user experience. Like most things, Apple will bring order to the chaos.

  24. borntofeel - 10 years ago

    And there goes any possibility of them working with Apple in the future.

  25. Howie Isaacks - 10 years ago

    I guess PayPal and Samsung must have the same dumb ass ad agency. This makes me NOT want to use PayPal for anything. I’ve had a PayPal account at least 13 years, but I can easily ditch them if they’re going to resort to stupid advertising stunts like this.

  26. ApplePay + EBay = Bye Bye PayPal.

    • weakguy - 10 years ago

      Not likely since eBay owns PayPal. Pay + Amazon, on the other hand, will murder PayPal. I do hope that can happen one day.

  27. Avenged110 - 10 years ago

    Says the company that has actually had security breaches…

  28. Meeno Zen - 10 years ago

    I fricking hate PayPal with a passion. Oh the horror story I lived through thanks to PayPal. I use it only because there is no other viable option out there. I’d switch in a heart beat.

  29. Several years ago my account was hacked and used to pay for the game someone was playing online. I asked paypal to tell me how it all happened – but paypal simply assured me that they will take care of the problem at their end.

  30. Lars Pallesen - 10 years ago

    Cleverly playing on peoples confusion and ignorance about how Apple Pay actually works, suggesting that Apple’s pay system stores your credit card information on iCloud like your selfies – which it doesn’t.

  31. D.A.H. Trump - 10 years ago

    PayPal is a good service if you market things online, but that PayPal was a low blow.

  32. Mike Moore (@mikeymo78) - 10 years ago

    It’s funny PayPal is taking a swipe at Apple. My PayPal account was hacked and they were so nonchalant about it. Didn’t even apologize. I’ve had an iTunes account for years and never one problem.

  33. Mark Dowling - 10 years ago

    Well if you bring the 3 to 5 business days to transfer funds to your bank account down to 2 days. People might respect you more.

  34. valanchan - 10 years ago

    Love’em or hate ’em this cannot be seen as classy.

  35. Daniel (@AppleFreakazoid) - 10 years ago

    Well, I don’t know about you but I feel reassured.

    In other news…. Here’s an informative video on “How to hack PayPal”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVKkW-UhLuM

  36. Pablo Zaremba - 10 years ago

    First thing I’d do if I were the Paypal CEO would be firing the marketing guy for giving birth to such a crappy add. Second, build a tangible customer care that solves problems instead of providing “solving guides”. Third and most important, explain why the Paypal leaks in last years are less severe than some celebrities using easy cracking passwords in any cloud there. This is the most liar and demagogic add I’ve seen in years. Samsungization is becoming a disease

  37. Pretty audacious from a subsidiary of ebay, which had a breach of its own just 4 months ago that resulted in 145 million accounts being compromised.

  38. Nick Knell - 10 years ago

    Haha! Paypal makes up lies! There was no iCloud “hack” it was highly likely a phishing attack- i.e. a fraudulent unauthorised impersonation of another person to gain access to their user accounts.

    Companies that try to create fear deserves to be exceeded by innovative companies like Apple.

    As for Apple’s Pay system, they won’t store any card details anyway, so even though hacking didn’t and won’t occur even if it did only a transaction record against the card goes to the credit card/ bank company uses this to complete the transaction. So nothing of value to steal.

    Bye bye Paypal. :D

    • kobymac - 10 years ago

      Apple pay is closed to apple users. It is only available in the USA. It will only be used by people who can be bothered using it (getting all of your cards on it is a tedious task to put it lightly). Most iphone users are tech retarded girls or tech retarded older people – hardly any tech savy android users even bother using NFC for payments….not because they can’t, but because the existing methods of payment are fine. There isn’t an issue here that needs solving. NFC payments as a standard isnt happening for a decade at least. At leasthe non apple users can enjoy the other benefits of NFC as they have for ages….and don’t have it locked to a pipe dream payment system.

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.