Online payment firm PayPal has announced plans to effectively ban users from sharing their computers, smartphones and tablets with anyone else, even family members.

On Tuesday, the company started sending registered users email alerts of upcoming amendments to terms and conditions.

The “Notice of changes to our Legal Agreements” showed policy changes effective June 17, in an email that ran to more than 8,000 words.

A number of the amendments covered improved buyer and seller protection for users, as the company is owned by auction site eBay.

However, Sky News has learned of the blanket sharing ‘ban’ under a heading of “Keeping your Payment Instrument Safe”, in which changes to security procedures required by users are explained.

Two new sub-sections have been added amid a rise in PayPal usage by people using smartphones, tablets and other portable devices, heightening the risk of misuse by people other than the rightful owner.

The first clause relates to keeping personal account details up to date and the second to pin and password security.

The second clause adds that users must agree to “Take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal electronic device through which you access the Services (including, without limitation, using pin and/or password protected personally configured device functionality to access the Services and not sharing your device with other people).”

No exceptions are listed and owners are in breach of their user agreement if they do not adhere to the clause.

Thank goodness for the fingerprint link up with PayPal and the Samsung S5.