Privacy

50695 readers

633 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

Prepaid cards (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 months ago by FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] formlessoedon@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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