[subego]

I just bought something online from a site which uses Paypal.

Paypal gave me the opportunity to log in, which I didn't (even previous to this incident, I find them that hugely annoying).

I needed to change the shipping address. When it came time to edit it, Paypal had already loaded in the alternate shipping addresses from my account.

Ummm... Maybe I'm overreacting here (wouldn't be the first time), but that strikes me as bad. Like, way bad.

[chabig]

I can't believe that any PayPal information was preloaded into the fields if you didn't log in. There must be another explanation.

[subego]

Even if there was some way I could have accidentally logged in and not realized it, my receipt says:

It looks as if you already have a PayPal account.

When you shop online, it's faster and easier to check out with PayPal. Your financial information is securely stored and never shared with merchants when you pay.

As I said (though now that I think about it not as clearly as I could have) it did know I have an account (after I entered my info) and asked me to log in, but I refused and continued as a guest.

[chabig]

Is there any chance that your browser is set up to autofill those fields?

[subego]

Which fields?

There were no fields on the change shipping address page. It gave you radio buttons for the addresses listed.

[chabig]

It does sound strange. Instead of asking here, may I suggest you ask the vendor and report back with your findings?

[subego]

I plan to. All I needed was one person telling me I'm not crazy.

Thanks!

[subego]

Email sent.

I predict they will bounce me to Paypal.

[subego]

The response was:

That is strange behavior.  This is the first we've heard of it and I'm sorry we don't have any answers.  Our records of the transaction look normal and does state that you are unregistered, which makes it interesting that they knew an address.  We sent them to the address given so I hope that's what you wanted.  I do know that Paypal has been upgrading their system so hopefully it was just a glitch.

Time to escalate...

[MacinTommy]

Originally Posted by subego 

I just bought something online from a site which uses Paypal.

Before we can get to the bottom of this, what did you purchase? Was it this?

[subego]

No sir. Tweezers.

I figure they've been stand-up here, and deserve a plug.

pocketweez.com

[Big Mac]

As time goes on, the case for using PayPal continues to be diminished. I really don't trust their policies. I've relegated its use mostly to eBay (same corporation, I know) and little more.

[besson3c]

PayPal shares info with eBay, do you use eBay?

[subego]

Are you asking me?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by subego 

Are you asking me?

You can answer if you want, I'm just trying to suggest another possibility...

[subego]

It's been ages.

I have a Paypal account though. The info wouldn't need to be shared, they already have it.

What's odd is that it spit it back out without a password.

Or am I misunderstanding you?

[besson3c]

I think I misread your original post, I missed the part about you not having to authenticate.

You can find out definitively whether this is something you need to be concerned with though. Go to the PayPal site and check to see if they have set a cookie in your browser. You can display cookies in the Safari/Chrome web inspector under the "storage" tab. If there is one, check the date it was set.

There is no way that PayPal would know who you are without a cookie or a session variable.

[subego]

I'm pretty sure they just checked my email (which was a required field) against their database.

[besson3c]

Ahh, so you did enter your email address? That makes perfect sense then...