Search privacy settings
Search Privacy settings give you control over how people can search for you when they want to send you money or request money from you.
Privacy Tip!
You can turn these settings ON to make it easier for people to check you’re the right person they intend to pay or ask for money.
You can turn these settings OFF if you don’t want people to find you in the search results when they enter your info. You can also manage what info you want or don’t want to be searchable by other PayPal users. They’ll still be able to pay you with your QR code or send money to your email address or phone number, but they won’t be able to see that you have an account on PayPal before sending the payment.
How do I manage my Search privacy settings?
- Go to Profile.
- Select Data and privacy.
- Select Search privacy.
From there, choose how you want people to search for you by toggling your controls on or off.
If I toggle my privacy settings off, can people still search for me to send or request money?
Turning off all your privacy controls means that if someone searches for you on PayPal, they won’t be able to see that you have an account on PayPal or what they’ve searched matches with an existing account. If you turn off individual search settings, that specific information will not be searchable for other PayPal users; only those settings you have toggled on will be searchable.
People can still send you money if they know your phone number or email or they can scan your personal QR code, but they can’t see your details in the search results.
What’s going to happen to my old search privacy settings?
If you previously had one or more preferences turned off, they will continue to be turned off in the new Search Privacy settings.