PayPal ribs Apple Pay: 'We want our money safer than our selfies'

PayPal has taken a swipe at Apple Pay. Photograph: Frederic Sierakowski / Rex Featu/Frederic Sierakowski / Rex Featu

PayPal has struck out at new payments rival Apple Pay, the NFC-operated payment system announced during last week’s keynote speech in Cupertino, California.

The eBay-owned electronic payment platform took out a full-page advert in a number of US publications on Monday, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today.

“We the people want our money safer than our selfies. PayPal, protecting the people economy”, the advert declares.

Let's enjoy our money, not worry about it. #paypalit for a safer and more secure way to pay: http://t.co/DFAH3bqniS. pic.twitter.com/e5udR8zGBJ

— PayPal (@PayPal) September 15, 2014

While Apple is not referenced directly, PayPal is referring to the recent nude celebrity photo leak, for which security lapses in Apple’s iCloud technology were blamed.

Despite Apple’s denials that iCloud was breached, the scandal was bad timing for the company, occurring just a week before its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch launch.

The advert isn’t the first punch thrown at Apple. PayPal’s senior director of communications, Rob Skinner, told TechRadar after the Apple Pay announcement: “Nobody can dispute Apple’s strong track record, but payments is a difficult area. It’s much more difficult to do payments than to keep a live stream working!”

Jennifer Lawrence, one of the celebrities whose photos were hacked. Photograph: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

“We’re quite surprised that Apple Pay has limited functionality. You can’t expect people just to swap their leather wallets for digital ones, you have to offer more and there is nothing to reward loyalty or provide offers or anything built in with Apple Pay”, Skinner added.

One might question the wisdom of PayPal’s attack on Apple, given its own security wobbles. Not long ago the company’s two-step verification proved fallible, and it was caught up in a phishing scam in November 2013. Parent company eBay was hacked in May this year.

PayPal is said to be frustrated at being left off Apple Pay’s list of recommended payment partners, which includes Stripe, Authorize.net, and Chase Paymentech, FirstData, TSYS – but not Braintree, the subsidiary PayPal uses. However, PayPal does allow customers to make transactions with Apple iTunes store.

• Paypal to accept bitcoin through subsidiary Braintree

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