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		<title>A class action against PayPal! &lt;https://y.st./en/weblog/2016/01-January/29.xhtml&gt;</title>
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		<header>
			<h1>A class action against PayPal!</h1>
			<p>Day 00328: Friday, 2016 January 29</p>
		</header>
<p>
	I thried to start working on my <abbr title="Free Application for Federal Student Aid">FAFSA</abbr> application form, but it turned out that I needed an account elsewhere (the Federal Student Aid website) in order to register for <abbr title="Free Application for Federal Student Aid">FAFSA</abbr>.
	At the Federal Student Aid website though, I ran into issues.
	The registration form uses JavaScript to disable pasting into certain fields.
	What nonsense is that? First of all, webmasters should not disable this vital functionality.
	It is none of the webmaster&apos;s business whether I type or paste.
	More importantly though, webmasters should not even be <strong>*able*</strong> to disable the pasting functionality.
	Pasting is done entirely client-side; the server does not even know if data has been typed or pasted.
	Instead, they instruct the client machine to disable it on the website&apos;s behalf.
	However, the client machine should listen to its actual owner ahead of the webmaster.
	If the user explicitly enters the paste command when a field is selected, anything short of pasting means that the machine is not doing what it should be.
</p>
<p>
	I decided to take a quick break, and instead of giving in to the obnoxious website, find a way to disable this antifeature that is present in my own Web browser.
	The first useful search result was a plugin called <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nocopypaste/">Disable clipboard manipulations</a>.
	I quickly looked over the license, then the description, and found that it is a free plugin that is supposed to prevent JavaScript from <strong>*listening*</strong> to cut, copy, and paste events.
	I decided to try it anyway, hoping that it would also block interference, and it thankfully did.
	It seems like overkill, as I only need to disable paste interference, not cut and copy interference, but I doubt that it will be an issue.
	Later, I came back to the add-on description page, and found that I had not read the description as throughly as I should have.
	First, the longer description does say that it prevents these events from being listened to, but the short description confirms that this plugin prevents interference.
	Second, the short description explains that this functionality has now been built into Firefox, one just needs to access <a href="about:config">the settings panel</a> and adjust the <code>dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled</code> setting.
	This obsoletes the plugin, so I removed it, but I think that this plugin may be why it was added to the built-in functionality.
	This plugin has served its purpose.
</p>
<p>
	I returned to the Federal Student Aid website, this time able to paste as I should be able to, and filled out the required form.
	I did not get a chance to fill out the <abbr title="Free Application for Federal Student Aid">FAFSA</abbr> application though, due to being wisked off to work in my mother&apos;s classroom.
</p>
<p>
	Before our mother came home, she sent Vanessa several <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> messages.
	However, they did not all come through, leading to a misunderstanding between Vanessa and our mother.
	Once she got home, the misunderstanding was cleared up quite quickly, but I am thankful that the messages had not gotten through.
	Our mother always seems to be under the impression that <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> is the most superior form of distance communication, to the point where email-to-<abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> and <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr>-to-email, both with her on the <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> side, are not good enough for her.
	She messages Vanessa when she wants to get ahold of Cyrus, as he often does not carry his mobile.
	His is not bound to his mobile the same way our mother is bound to hers.
	However, she also messages Vanessa when she wants to get ahold of me, even though I carry mine, because she does not want to send <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> to or receive <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> from my email address.
	When <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> utterly fails on her like this, it makes me happy because I hope that maybe she will learn to see that perhaps <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr> is not as wonderful as she seems to think that it is.
	Once she arrived home and the misunderstanding was cleared up, Vanessa, Cyrus, and I went to her school to work on her classroom for mst of the day.
</p>
<p>
	I received an email about a <a href="https://accountholdsettlement.com/">class-action settlement against PayPal</a>.
	I was so excited! PayPal is having to pay for the fact that they were closing people&apos;s accounts, suspending people&apos;s accounts, improperly handled charge disputes, and and put reserves on accounts.
	In 2014 September, which was during the time period in question, PayPal began repeatedly suspending my account, claiming that I needed to prove my identity to them.
	Repeatedly, I complied more than was reasonable.
	They kept demanding that I provide photographs of my state-issued <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr> and Social Security card, copies of my credit card statements, copies of my utility bills with my name on them, an <abbr title="Short Message Service">SMS</abbr>-enabled telephone number that they could verify, and unfettered access to my bank account.
	Repeatedly, I provided photographs of my <abbr title="identification">ID</abbr> and Social Security card, despite the fact that I did not want to provide the Social Security card.
	Repeatedly, I provided copies of my credit card statements.
	Repeatedly, I told them that I do not have telephone service, so I cannot provide a telephone number, and that I do not pay for the utilities here, so there does not exist a utility bill with my name on it.
	And repeatedly, I told them that they had no business having access to my bank account, as I always payed via credit card when using PayPal, never bank withdraws.
	Every time, they claimed that they had reviewed my information and had decided to unlock my account, but upon logging in, it would immediately become suspended again.
	As I had kept telling them too, I only needed access to the account long enough to close the account, as they refused to close it with it suspended and they refused to allow me to make payments with my card that was attached to the account while not logged in.
	It took until near the end of January or February before they finally just deleted the account and freed my card.
	It was quite an ordeal, and it makes me hot headed again just typing about it.
	However, when I tried to submit a claim, I found two issues.
	First, they required a telephone number.
	I provided one of the standard dead numbers that is supposed to remain permanently unallocated, as the field could not be left blank or contain letters.
	Second, I had to submit proof of my claim.
	Proof lies in my old email inbox, the one that I lost in February when my hard drive died and I lost all my passwords, meaning that i lost all my accounts such as my email account.
	I actually managed to excavate a copy of my old password database from my mobile at some point, but it was not up to date.
	It lacked the key needed by <a href="https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=authenticator&amp;fdid=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2">Authenticator</a>, so while it had the email password, I was still unable to get in.
</p>
<p>
	Being reminded of my old PayPal account, I also remembered my new one.
	I started a new PayPal business account, having been told that doing so would allow me to make payments that come from a name matching my <abbr title="Uniform Resource Identifier">URI</abbr> instead of coming from my name.
	However, PayPal required my to input the last four digits of my Social Security number, then kept complaining that they were wrong.
	I was entering the correct numbers, but for whatever reason, PayPal was refusing it.
	I went back today to try again, but found that I had not stored my password.
	I think that I had thought that the account did not get created because they would not let me finish with the form, but they had created it and had kept pestering me with emails since.
	I tried to reset my password, but PayPal insisted that I do so via telephone, so I was unable to do that.
	Coming back and investigating more later though, I found an alternative hidden password reset page.
	First, you have to tell the PayPal website that it was your email address that you forgot, not your password.
	Then, you need to tell it that you were kidding, and that you know your own email address, you just forgot the password.
	It will then ask for your social security number, then send you a password reset email.
	This did something that fixed my account though.
	Once PayPal had my Social Security number, they quit telling me that the last four digits are wrong when I enter them.
	Though I did still have to complete registration by providing the last four digits, this time, they were accepted.
	Resetting my password was a pain though.
	PayPal refused to allow me to paste my password, despite having disabled the interference of cut/copy/paste events in my configuration.
	I tried reinstalling that plugin from earlier, and that did not fix it either.
	Somehow, PayPal has found a way to disable pasting in an abnormal way.
	I defeated their restriction with <a href="apt:keepassx">KeePassX</a>&apos;s auto-type feature, but PayPal still should not have this kind of power over my Web browser.
	Once I was in the account, I found that it likely does not meet my needs.
	It allows you to set how your business name appears when you charge someone&apos;s card, and I imagine that if the name on your credit card is not used when you are being charged yourself, this setting is used, not the setting that determines what your actual business&apos; name is.
	This setting will only allow capicatl letters and spaces, no non-alphabetic symbols such as colons, slashes, and dots.
	If my suspicion is correct, a business PayPal account does me no good whatsoever, and accountless transactions are the better option.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
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