More Cowbell, Less Tracking Please
PayPal Quietly Updates its Privacy Statement
When you think about Will Ferrell, what character first comes to mind? For me it’s a tie between Buddy the Elf and Gene Frenkle.
“I’ve got a fever… and the only prescription is more cowbell.”
Legendary.
Mr. Ferrell’s latest character is literally singing PayPal’s praises… “I wanna pay with you everywhere.” It’s a really well done commercial that highlights a pretty darn good 5% cashback on purchases. It’s PayPal’s biggest ever marketing campaign in the U.S.
I’m usually a bit cynical about over-played commercials. If I see a movie trailer everywhere for a relatively unknown story, I tend to think they’re overspending on marketing to keep it from flopping. The skeptic in me wanted to see why Will Ferrell was suddenly everywhere in this PayPal commercial. Why now?
On top of the new cashback ad campaign, PayPal just announced they’re allowing business accounts to use cryptocurrency. These are public pushes to keep PayPal relevant and profitable. But what’s happening behind the curtains? Let’s take a peek…
PayPal has seen better days. After peaking post-COVID and then falling significantly, its current stock value is back to where it was in 2018. Alex Chriss, the CEO since 2023, is trying to stay competitive and turn things around. And lost in the distraction of Will Ferrell’s voice, but thanks to a post on Bluesky, is an update to PayPal’s privacy policy stating, “Starting early Summer 2025, we will share information to help improve your shopping experience and make it more personalized for you.”
PayPal is quietly shifting toward targeted ads, using and sharing your data with stores and advertisers. And let’s not forget that PayPal owns Venmo, where the default visibility of our transactions is set to public. The good news is that you can opt out. So if you don’t want them to track and share your data, make sure to turn off that switch (see image above). In short, while they're luring us to spend more with 5% cashback, they’re now poised to share the data of that expected wave of new spending.
Companies need to adapt and stay competitive, but we need movement away from sharing personal data, not toward it. More cowbell, less tracking please.
Ad revenue, and the accompanying tracking, profiling, and targeting is something we cover in detail in our new course, “Driver’s Training for Social Media.” All part of keeping wizards honest and the public powerful. We’ll have a preview of the course for everyone LIVE THIS WEEK!!!! And when it’s all finished, the entire course will be available to “Behind the Curtains” annual subscribers.