As a payment provider, the security of your PayPal account is critical. If someone can access your account, they could withdraw money from your PayPal balance or authorize payments.
One of PayPal’s features that you need to be careful with is “automatic logins.” They can save you the time of manually logging every time you want to make a payment; however, you should only ever use it on devices that only you have access to.
Tip: Technically, “automatic logins” is a misnomer; it’s more like you’re not really ever logging out. Your session cookie is configured to remain active for a long period of time rather than expiring after a short period.
Why PayPal’s Automatic Login Can Be Dangerous
The problem with automatic logins is that if someone else has access to your device, they have access to your PayPal account and can pay with your money rather than their own. For example, if you allow PayPal to automatically log you into an eCommerce store and someone else has access to your device, they could change the delivery address and pay for items via your PayPal.
You can review and revoke automatic logins via PayPal’s settings. To access the settings, click on the cogwheel icon in the top-right corner of the website.
Once you’re in PayPal’s settings, switch to the “Security” tab, then click on “Auto-logins” to review where your account can automatically sign in.
In the popup, you can then review where you can automatically login from. If you want to remove a device or platform from the list, click “Turn off” for the relevant device.
Unfortunately, you can’t disable the service entirely. To avoid using it, just make sure you don’t click to option to “Stay logged in for faster purchases.”
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