[usehackernews]

I work in Payments.

This must be related to their new product - Fastlane.

Fastlane is an express checkout product, similar to ShopPay. Even if you have never used a website, you authenticate with OTP and all your information (Address & Payment Methods) is available.

Originally, merchants could not use this data to make customer accounts. This was not ideal for us merchants as there was no method to login to track your order information.

PayPal came to me this week saying they were updating their legal agreement to allow merchants to create customer accounts.

(Express checkout options will soon be everywhere - Stripe, Shopify, PayPal, Zelle/Paze are all competing in this space now)

[kelnos]

> This was not ideal for us merchants as there was no method to login to track your order information.

You don't need accounts for that. Allow customers to check their order status using the order number and some other identifying bit that you are allowed to get/keep, such as last name or billing zip code. Merchants have been doing this since the very start of e-commerce. (If you can't keep anything, then just make the order numbers long random strings, and use that alone, and/or generate a random, unique URL to send in the order confirmation email.)

If a merchant creates an account for me without my consent, I delete that account and never buy from them again.

Stop abusing your customers' personal information. I'm glad I live in California, and have already opted out to PayPal sharing my information for this, as is my legal right.

[hakfoo]

Or email them the actual tracking number.

I don't need to go to your website to read the same information as usps.com but in a different header.

[usehackernews]

We do allow customers to check order status based on order id. I was just using an example.

The only information paypal is sharing is name and shipping address. We’re aren’t talking significant data here.

[dgregd]

How is that different from Apple Pay or Google Pay, where you click one button and provide all your card details to a new merchant?

[usehackernews]

It’s not different. It’s a direct competitor.

These new wallets are all to compete with Apple and Google Pay.