Privacy

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Protect your privacy in the digital world

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Digital Debit Cards? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm looking for some recommendations for digital debit/credit cards.

It feels like every other day there's 'the largest data breach in history' and at this point, I really don't trust any entity to safely and securely store PII.

That said, I like buying things on the internet, I'm not into crypto and would rather not include my real card information during checkout.

Any recs would be appreciated, thanks yall!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

What is your threat model? If it's loosing money on your account, then Scrubbles already has posted an answer on security. I'd like to add that many modern credit/debit cards allow you to disable and reenable payment methods as you need it, you can use that to prevent your account getting drained.

But to me this isn't the entire answer, as it does little to protect your privacy in case of a data breach. I'll break down additional things you can do, roughly from least to most effort:

Don't reuse usernames unless you need to build a brand. If one account ever leaks personal information, it's harder to associate it with the other stuff you do online.
Have at least 2 regular emails, one for services that need your personal info, and one for everything else. If needed you can compartmentalize more. Use temporary emails for signups wherever possible.
Often you don't need to fill in real information into forms, make things up and put them as a note in you PW manager in case you need it later.
Protect you phone number at all costs. It's a pain in the a** to change, and companies know it. Always assume you are being tracked if asked for your number. If it leaks, it becomes much easier to build a profile on you.
Shipping companies will often ask you for your number. How often have you been called because there were issues? If the answer is zero, they don't need your real number either.
When using 2FA, use Aegis or a similar app. SMS 2FA is vulnerable to a few attacks and again leaks your number.
Get stuff shipped to a post box, if available to you locally. There are re-shipping services like a physical VPN if you need an extra layer.
Do not use paypal for payment if you want to hide your post address. They automatically give it to the merchant without telling you. Not sure who else follows the same practice, but personally I would not trust google/apple/samsung pay either.
If you need best payment privacy, buy a gift card with cash. Should you ever get crypto and want to get rid of it, buying a gift card with it is a good method.