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PayPal cuts off white supremacists: PayPal has posted a statement reiterating its acceptable use policy in response to the violent white supremacist rally on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Va., during which one person was killed and dozens wounded. PayPal said it works to ensure that its services are not used to accept payments or donations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance. "This includes organizations that advocate racist views, such as the KKK, white supremacist groups or Nazi groups," said Franz Paache, senior vice president of corporate affairs and communications for PayPal, in the statement. "If we become aware of a website or organization using our services that may violate our policies, our highly trained team of experts addresses each case individually and carefully evaluates the website itself, any associated organizations and their adherence to our policy. Ultimately this team of professionals makes a recommendation that leads to the final determination on our ability to maintain our relationship with the website's owner." In its statement, PayPal did not directly address The Hill and other media outlets that reported organizers of "Unite the Right" used PayPal accounts to fund the event. The Hill also reported white nationalist Richard Spencer used PayPal to fund operations. PayPal did ban another group, the League of the South, but the group's founder Michael Hill reportedly got around that ban by using his personal PayPal account. PayPal responded to The Hill, saying that it consistently enforces its use of standards to keep hate, violence and intolerance off of its platform. The Hill also reports white supremacists have a hard time using mainstream crowdfunding and payment sites and often launch their own sites to process payments.
PayPal signage is displayed in front of eBay Inc. headquarters in San Jose, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. EBay Inc. is spinning off its PayPal division, heeding demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn and giving the business independence it can use to contend with rising competition from Apple Inc. and Google Inc. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Ticketmaster's tech: The musical Hamilton is deploying new ticketing technology to combat its struggles with scalpers and other authorized third party sales via the internet. The New York Times reports the show is using a Ticketmaster service that analyzes the purchase history of buyers to ferret out bots and high-volume resellers, similar to a behavioral analysis engine that flags suspicious card transactions to spot potential fraud. Hamilton is the third Broadway show to adopt the technology, following Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which opens in spring 2018, and Springsteen on Broadway, which opens this fall.
More 'open banking' collaborations: Banks and technology companies are rapidly responding to the new PSD2 data sharing requirements that require banks to provide more access to third parties. In Norway, compliance is taking the form of a fintech hub called Finance Innovation, a group of about two dozen banks and technology companies that are using artificial intelligence and distributed ledgers to create new payments and financial services applications. Members include Skandiabanken, Nordea, DNB, Tryg Forsikring, Monobank, Sparebanken Vest, Tripod, Stacc, Knowit and Webstep. NHH Norwegian School of Economics and the University of Bergen are also part of the group. Field Services on Demand, a technology blog, reports local smartphone penetration is 80% in the Norway and 90% of the population uses the internet for banking, creating a large addressable market..
Digiliti Money faces Chapter 11, investigation: Digiliti Money is warning it will post second quarter revenue of between $1.1 million and $1.3 million, well below the $2 million it reported in the same quarter in 2016 when it also announced it was seeking new funding to finance its business. However, the 2016 results are now under internal investigation because of "recently discovered information," reports StreetInsider, which adds the 2016 numbers may need to be restated. The company is considering options to restructure, which may include filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, because an emerging funding source is no longer certain. Digiliti offers prepaid, check capture, bill pay, merchant capture and other financial services.
From the Web
Fundraiser for WannaCry researcher pulled after donations from stolen credit cards The Hill | Tue Aug 15, 2017 - A donation site for the legal defense of a well-established cybersecurity researcher facing charges over criminal malware is being pulled offline Tuesday after a hacker tried to donate money using stolen credit cards. The site was raising money for Marcus Hutchins, whose work helped prevent substantial damage from the WannaCry malware that infected at least 300,000 systems earlier this year. Hutchins was arrested in Las Vegas in early August. He is being charged in a Milwaukee federal court of designing and helping distribute the Kronos malware, which stole online banking usernames and passwords.
How To Make Mobile Payments The Favorite Option For Consumers Forbes | Tue Aug 15, 2017 - Nearly half of U.S. consumers, 48%, are interested in mobile payments like Apple Pay or Android Pay, according to a study by my firm, NTT DATA. But there still seems to be hesitation among customers yet to adopt the tool. Some experts say what’s holding back consumer acceptance of mobile payments is coupon/rewards motivation, others say it’s security; some comment that the time spent on transactions due to the newly sanctioned chip and PIN authentication will force consumers to switch, others think a winning customer experience will be the turning point in driving users to mobile wallets.
China's Biggest Mobile Payment Solutions Are Taking Root In U.S. and Europe Forbes | Tue Aug 15, 2017 - If you are a brand manager or a retailer, you’re increasingly likely to find yourself grappling with the impact of Chinese e-commerce companies in your home market. That’s for two reasons: China’s leadership in electronic payments and the continued rise in Chinese tourism. The upshot of this is that Chinese consumers are an increasingly important factor in markets around the world. On the electronic payment front, there are some strong reasons to embrace the electronic payment systems Chinese consumers are already using. In China, the traditional wallet has been replaced by an electronic wallet on a smartphone. It’s common to make all of your payments for daily needs through that smartphone, using one of two main electronic payment providers: WeChat Pay or Alipay. WeChat Pay is part of the WeChat messaging family, owned by Tencent, and Alipay is affiliated with Alibaba.
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