I’ve been thinking about which is the better way to shop to maintain privacy. The way I see it there are pros and cons to each but I can’t decide which is ultimately better (and of course it depends on threat model and who you’re trying to hide from)
Irl
Pro
- Retailer doesn’t need your address/phone number/email address to complete a transaction
- If you pay with cash, your bank doesn’t have details of what you bought and can’t sell it to data brokers
Con
- Most/all stores have security cameras (often with facial recognition). You can mitigate it with masks or other coverings but I’ve seen a few stores now locally that don’t allow masks or raised hoodies
Online
Pro
- Your shopping is kept from prying eyes as far as security cameras go
Con
- If you buy something to be delivered, the retailer usually wants your address, email and phone number, and (unless using a gift card) your credit card info
- Even if you buy something to collect in store, most still require a phone number which can be hard to make private if burner phones aren’t legal where you live and/or the retailer won’t accept VoIP numbers
You must log in or register to comment.
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 :)
- 0 users online
- 108 users / day
- 435 users / week
- 1.32K users / month
- 4.54K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 4.39K Posts
- 111K Comments
- Modlog
It does depend. Most big retailers share CCTV footage with each other through a central company to build a profile on shoplifters (though I wouldn’t trust them to use it only for that)
This definitely hasn’t been my experience though. I can’t remember the last time I saw an online retailer that didn’t require one, or at least require that the field be filled out. I suppose you could just enter a dummy number but then if there’s a problem with the delivery they’ll always try to contact you by phone first
I actually asked this morning at the post office specifically thinking about your remarks.
They do sell non denominative credit cards here. So your card is KYC (I imagine, I don’t think it’s possible to go around that) and they know who you are, ID and all, but stores, online or not, have no name associated to it.
Regarding online stores I do again advise to be cautious and not assume that because a contact field is there, it is mandatory. Yes it might be important for deliveries of parcels but that’s a moot point if delivery happens to a 24/7 box.