Paypal denies Safari-blocking reports

 News in brief: There’s been multiple reports claiming PayPal plans to block Safari users from using its service on account of the browser’s lack of built-in anti-phishing features.

The Safari block has been mooted as part of a package of moves to combat phishing attacks: for example, PayPal will warn users of older browsers that they are vulnerable to such attacks, and will eventually block older browsers from accessing its service. This move generated a wave of speculation claiming the company plans to remove support for Safari, but this is not the case, PayPal explained last night.

In a response to an article on the Wall Street Journal, PayPal Corporate Communications spokesman, Michael Oldenburg said: "PayPal is developing features to block customers from logging into PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems. An example of such a browser/OS combination might be, for example, Internet Explorer 4 running on Windows 98. In doing so, we better protect our customers from viewing a phishing site through their browser. We have absolutely no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from our website."

So, Safari and PayPal are safe, for the moment.