What we have here is…
PayPal is dealing with some unintended fallout regarding a smart policy decision.
The online money folks made a smart decision last week and put out a press release. The original news: PayPal to Block Users With Old Browsers. All well and good; PayPal is a regular phishing target.
But the news items and press around the announcement were not clear enough. From the article above: “PayPal said a ‘significant’ group of people still use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3, released in 1996, and IE 4, which debuted in 1997. Those browsers lack a phishing filter, which can block users from accessing a reported phishing Web site.” The article later notes that “Apple’s browser — Safari — does not” have a phishing filter.
Cue melodrama, and the follow-up news this morning: PayPal Denies Plan to Block Safari. Which, of course, was not the original news item. But PayPal neither a) provided a list of blocked browsers nor b) listed modern browsers like Safari as safe for use, at least nowhere I’ve looked.
The lack of clarity created a situation that ran far afield of the original intent. Instead of being heralded as encouraging safe ecommerce, PayPal found itself dispelling rumors that angered the Macintosh audience. A little more communication and transparency would have ended the excitement before it began.