Up to what dollar amount am I insured in the event of a hack?

[Kpthebarber]

Up to what dollar amount am i insured in the event of a hack

[Dantewatkins]

If hacked (similar to target) does Square cover the seller up to a certain amount?

[Sean · Accepted solution]

Great question! We take security very serioulsy at Square, and as part of that commitment we're required to inform all customers of any unauthorized access to their information if this ever did occur (which hopefully it never does). 

If your customer's card information is ever compromised, their bank will protect them, as credit cards have fraud protection built in. If you, or your customer, have specific questions about what to do in the case of card theft, it's best to contact the credit card company directly for more details on how they handle these sort of situations.

[GCAG]

Both of your answers were not what Kpthebarber was looking for.

If Kpthebarber shipped goods to a fraulent customer who used a stolen CC, to what $ amount will Square insure or reimburse Kpthebarber?

[Russell]

Hey there @GCAG - since @Kpthebarber mentioned hack we figured the question had more to do with security and less to do with chargebacks. 

I can definitely see where fraudulent transactions would be concerning.

I hope this helps clear things up @GCAG - if you or @Kpthebarber have additional questions, please post again on this thread. 

[Clothesmindedpg]

After reading these forums I am going to just auto assume I will lose the case because it seems Square doesn’t fight as hard as PayPal does? I’ve dealt with dozens of “unauthorized use” selling online via eBay/PayPal and I have literally never lost a case, ever, but from these forums it sounds like I will lose the current “unauthorized use” charge, is this because square doesn’t continue fighting? 

[DaoDeJing]

@Clothesmindedpg Honestly, there is little Square can really do other than provide any and all records they can to the banks involved to support your side in a chargeback. It’s not like they can “fight” by being extra persuasive or something. Ultimately, it’s up to the bank to decide. This is clearly an unbalanced system of power though, since a bank is much more interested in keeping their customer happy than a random merchant they have no connection to.

So unless you happen to have a very strong  relationship with the bank in question, or the chargeback was obviously fraudulent (which is probably a subjective judgement), many times the card-issuing bank will just side with their customer by default.

There is literally nothing Square *can* do except provide all evidence the charges are legit. PayPal doesn’t do that. They basically just send a message to the bank along the lines of “hey, the merchant claims it was a valid charge”. It’s no surprise practically all chargebacks through PayPal are upheld.

[HomeOnTheRange]

I'm still curious if there is any liability insurance built into Square for the seller in the case that customer data was stolen or a terminal / POS was hacked?  Is informing the customer(s) that a breach has happened the only action that Square guarantees?

[EJ_]

@HomeOnTheRange I might be misunderstanding the scenario that you're describing, but Square maintains PCI Compliance for all of our Sellers. 

We deal with the banks on your behalf including PCI compliance, regulation, and processing. We advocate on your behalf to make sure that simple errors, honest mistakes, and disputes are resolved equitably.

[EJ_]

@HomeOnTheRange I was able to reach out to our Privacy team, and they were able to provide more detail into your specific question than previously provided. 

The following is from our Privacy team directly: 

Regarding breaches generally, if the data that you have collected from your customers is breached, the responsibility for that breach depends on how it occurred. If the breach occurred on your system or device (for example, if you were the victim of a phishing attack and your Square account was accessed without your authorization, data was accessed without your permission from your computer or mobile device, or your account or device was otherwise compromised), you would be responsible to your customers. We cannot provide legal advice to you  on what your steps should be. You may want to consider consulting with an attorney or privacy expert should you have additional questions.

Additionally, our terms of service give guidance on what we do and do not provide in connection with your use of our products. Our terms of service can be reviewed here.

If Square's internal data systems were breached, Square may be responsible. In this case, Square would comply with all applicable data privacy laws, rules, and regulations in responding to and remediating the breach.

I hope that sheds a bit more light on this. 

[katieand]

Hi there - We're hosting a Live Q&A with our Head of Security on 8/16 since we know you have the great and important questions. Please post them here! They'll be answered on the 16th.