So, you link your paypal account to your bank account. It has to be an account belonging to the same person, so that's a safety barrier. But when the connection is successful, how does it operate? Under what agreement is paypal allowed to draw money? The only other way to charge my account is through my debit card, or through a direct money transfer from within the bank's system.

Is there some kind of special agreement between Paypal and banks globally? Do the banks offer some kind of API system to link accounts with a 3rd mechanism to enable management of multiple accounts under one app? Is it something else entirely?

They can also charge your card in the same way. Again, instead of using the bank's app to approve or reject the payment, paypal connects to your card directly and the bank sends the money. What is the system under all that?

It really sounds risky for me.

After reading this, if I understand correctly, when sending money to a

• Personal account: they see your name, avatar, and only if you've chosen to share it, your mailing address.

• Business account: they see your name, email, "if they need to contact you about your purchase" your phone number, and "if you bought something that needs to be mailed" your mailing address.

But it's not always very clear what is actually being shown to the user you're paying. For example I paid an invoice to someone with a Business account with my Personal account, and it doesn't explicitly show me anywhere if my name or the email tied to my Paypal was sent. It also doesn't clarify if my phone number was sent, and as for mailing address it does say "This purchase is a digital good and will not be shipped to an address." so I guess that means it didn't send my mailing address. Or did it?

I might just ask the person I paid what they see. But still, it baffles me that with Personal accounts there doesn't seem to be a way to obscure say your name, or any clear controls to easily determine whether or not you want to send your name, email, phone number or mailing address to someone.