PayPal adds authenticator app as 2-step verification option
PayPal; love it, or hate it. I had my troubles with the service in the past but have to acknowledge that it is one of the most popular online payment options thanks to its wide distribution.
PayPal customers who want to add that extra bit of security to their accounts can enable 2-step verification to protect logins against unauthorized access.
PayPal's been offering options to add a second layer of security to accounts since 2008 when it launched the PayPal Security Key feature. Security Key was a physical device that you could use to create a code that you had to enter to sign-in to PayPal accounts.
Options to sign-in using an app were introduced in 2014 with Symantec's VIP Access app that supported PayPal and other sites. Basically, what it did was generate a code that you had to enter.
The only other option that PayPal customers had up until now was to use SMS instead. PayPal would sent a code using SMS and that code had to be entered in a secondary step on the PayPal site to sign-in.
SMS has a few drawbacks: it is not particularly secure, you need a mobile connection, and it happens that messages take their time or vanish in Nirvana at times. Authenticator apps run locally on the device which means that code generation is instant and does not require a mobile connection or Internet connection.
You can still use SMS as a backup option on PayPal.
PayPal authenticator app support
Authenticator applications are apps that run on a mobile device. These applications need to be linked to accounts during setup but work locally from that moment on.
PayPal does not list all supported authenticator applications that the service supports, and the recommendation that it makes to find an authenticator app is quite problematic.
PayPal states:
To download an app, go to your phone's app store, search for "authenticator app" , and download one such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator.
The suggestion to search for an application is vague, and it is quite possible that users may encounter less than stellar apps when they run searches. We do know that Google's and Microsoft's solution work but that is about it (Authy works as well).
Setup
Here is how you use an authenticator application to protect PayPal better or switch from SMS:
- Sign in to your PayPal account. If you run into issues here, try our PayPal login guide to sort things out.
- Select the settings icon in the top right corner on the PayPal website.
- Go to Security > 2-step verification.
- Turn 2-step login on if it is set to off.
- When adding a device, select "Use an authenticator app".
- PayPal displays a QR code on the next page. You need to open the authenticator app that you use on your mobile device and use it to scan the QR code. If you cannot scan the code, type the 16 character code that is displayed underneath it instead.
- The authenticator app should pick up the company and your PayPal email address automatically.
- Type the six digit authentication code in the field on the PayPal website to verify the link between the authenticator app and your PAyPal account.
- You can set the authenticator app as the primary 2-step login method; this makes SMS the backup method.
- Select Done to complete the process.
Closing Words
Some users prefer SMS, others authenticator apps and PayPal supports both now. If you have not already, I suggest you enable 2-step login on PayPal to better secure the account.
Now You: Do you use PayPal or other payment services regularly or occasionally?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.