FRESH

Hacker News

PayPal bans Linux users with a GPU name containing the string "Apple M1"

106 points by robin_reala

by ndiddy

0 subcomment

I'd guess this is due to some Paypal fraud protection thing thinking that Linux on M1 is an "impossible" configuration to have and that anyone with that configuration must be spoofing their hardware.
If you click onto the bug she filed, it's also kind of sad/funny that the Mozilla employee responding to it ALSO assumes that nobody can actually run Linux on M1 and renames the bug to "paypal.com - Spoofing as Apple M GPU breaks the login process by triggering a block to the security challenge".
It's a shame because Asahi runs really well on M1 & M2. I hope that they're able to get this resolved and that other issues like this don't pop up in the future.

by rnhmjoj

2 subcomments

I think the real problem is that any website can get a ton of information on your GPU, including vendor, model, supported extensions etc. via WebGL/WebGPU.

by herbst

1 subcomments

PayPal is the only semi reliable payment method attached to my credit card that doesn't constantly fail payments on my desktop computer.
Glad to hear that's going to change as well.

by tgma

1 subcomments

Probably tripping some client fingerprinting/fraud detection system because it thinks of it as an anomaly mistaking it for a bot or something. Unlikely to be intentional malice against Asahi users.

by j-bos

3 subcomments

That's disastrous, imagine getting cut off from financial services because of being an early adopter.

by leothetechguy

2 subcomments

by general1465

3 subcomments

Why would anyone use PayPal at the first place? I have only negative experiences with them. Constant blocking, freezing account and then unfreezing it with no explanation why it was frozen in the first place just panacea "fraud detection", chargebacks months after the purchase.