PayPal, others buy stolen data from criminals to protect users In early 2014, hackers gained control of a small number of eBay employee log-ins and breached a company database containing customer information. Inside it were phone numbers, home addresses and dates of birth, among other details that users entrusted the online auctioneer to protect. The breach would prove so vast that eBay was forced to ask more than 100 million people to reset their passwords. PayPal, then the digital-commerce arm of eBay, sought to ensure it wouldn’t have to ask its users to do the same. So, PayPal did something it acknowledges is a “regular course of business.” It tasked a middleman to buy data from criminals: a small sample of 32 accounts offered online for about $100. continua qui: http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PayPal-others-buy-stolen-data-fr... -- Prof. Avv. Alessandro Mantelero Politecnico di Torino Nexa Center for Internet and Society | Director of Privacy Politecnico di Torino–Tongji University| Coordinator, Double Degree program in Management and IP Law Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology | Part-time Expert, School of Public Administration http://staff.polito.it/alessandro.mantelero @mantelero EMAIL POLICY: twice a day (Mon-Fri)