Prepaid cards

6 hours ago by FineCoatMummy to c/privacy

Have you tried them for privacy purposes? What are your experiences?

Here is mine. I've used the Visa prepaid cards. Where I live (USA) you can buy them "anonymously". Scare quotes because sure, nothing is 100% anonymous now. But you can buy them with cash and activate them without giving a phone #. Not quite as anonymous as cash, but close. It avoids the heavy data trail of a normal CC. And you can use them sometimes where you can't use cash.

But there's the prob. It's hit and miss if they work. Unfortunately, these are HUGE among scammers, so those scammer fucks poisoned the well. Some stores will flat out deny them. Other times, they work fine.

I've had probs at some point of sale terminals, others work OK. Ditto gas pumps. Seems to be no way to know which way it'll go without trying. Which means you gotta have another way to pay lined up.

I haven't tried them for online shopping yet.

ifGoingToCrashDont 4 points 6 hours ago

They usually have to be 'activated' first, which gives card vendors the opportunity to collect your information before allowing purchases. This isnt common practice yet, but I'd bet that's coming. Even if they don't collect your pre-activation info, the date, time and place of purchase are recorded and attached to the card. It wouldn't be a stretch for law enforcement to request CC/security video from the merchant at the date and time of purchase. So I don't think they offer as much privacy as cash unfortunately.

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FineCoatMummy 6 points 6 hours ago

They usually have to be ‘activated’ first, which gives card vendors the opportunity to collect your information before allowing purchases.

Yah, I did have to activate the one I bought. I was able to do it over a VPN tho. Without giving any ID details like a phone or w/e, and I even tried to avoid browser fingerprinting. It's not perfect. But for my threat model vs big-data brokers, I felt it was OK. A person might feel different if they are an enemy of the state or w/e tho :)

It wouldn’t be a stretch for law enforcement to request CC/security video from the merchant at the date and time of purchase.

That's prob true. But I figure, that is a barrier against the commercial mass surveilence I want to avoid. I wanna fight automated, everyday surveilence as much as I can. The boring dystopia stuff. Someone trying to be all Ed Snowden, they should prob not use these. Anyway if someone's threat model has cops requesting security video, cash has that prob too.

I agree these are not 100% rock solid vs every possible thing. It's a tool in the toolbox tho.

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CameronDev 1 point 4 hours ago

Activating a CC over a VPN and then using it in person deanonymises your VPN. You'd be better off activating on a maccas WiFi.

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FineCoatMummy 2 points 3 hours ago

Activating a CC over a VPN and then using it in person deanonymises your VPN

Can you explain more, what you are thinking? I agree it's more secure to activate it in the way you say. Maybe I shoulda, lol. I'm less sure if it matters for my threat model vs boring dystopia.

When I activated the CC, they prob logged the VPN IP. But they (prob) couldn't tie it to my name. Anyone might use the same VPN, not just me. And I can and do rotate which VPN IP I use. There is a risk here if they browserprinted me. I tried to mask that. Ofc IDK if that's even possible to mask successfully. So that'd be a vulnerability.

In theory, a store with face recog could associate the CC with me at the time of purchase, and give that info to Visa, no matter how careful I was when activating it. I doubt that happens. But in theory it could. Tho if they are doing that, I'm not much better with cash, they can tie my purcahses to me through FR still.

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CameronDev 1 point 3 hours ago

It doesn't fully deanonymise you, but any activity from that VPN endpoint can be linked to your physical location (at least temporarily).

Its just another data point. If your VPN endpoint is shared it does mitigate this somewhat, but it depends how not careful everyone else is.

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formlessoedon 1 point 2 hours ago

Stores are always going to be capable of corroborating your presence with your card purchase, it's how they get many longterm shoplifters. Back when I lived in the states a lot of people around me got nabbed lifting but using cash + low profile in work clothes + look smart (Just Be Asian) + blind spots + small yields never failed me. You also have to watch out for your license plate being available to them. I would imagine now you have to walk to retailers for thoroughness, account for flock etc

Of course, none of this really matters versus being one of many. They have a scale problem. Who knows how much AI can cut it down to size. Gonna be more hungry people

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f3nyx 2 points 2 hours ago

depending on your use case, check out privacy.com

they offer digital cards that act as proxies to your bank. if there's ever a vendor breach, payment information on you is not the same between any two vendors. you can limit your cards to single-use, merchant locked, and set spend limits.

this service is not anonymous as they need your bank details.

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FineCoatMummy 1 point a minute ago

Oh. I use a similar one called Ironvest. They also have masked cards to use. But they're virtual cards so I can't use them in meatspace.

I tried to sign up for privacy.com. They I send a digital copy of my photo ID to a 3rd party! I said no thanks. Ironvest is also not anonymous ofc. But they never demanded a copy of my ID. They confirmed me in other ways. I've had it a long time. I dunno if they would require it now for new signups or what. But I never had to.

I wouldn't even mind except nobodys shit is secure. I send ID to whatever identity resolver privacy.com uses, and only a matter of time till it leaks to every identity thief.

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