My silly privacy antics landed me in a VICE article on privacy and prepaid credit cards.
Mildly embarrassing; definitely entertaining. Thanks to John Ambrosio for the reporting!
One of my favorite quotes:
When asked about the possibility that people might be providing false information to remain anonymous, a representative from Simon said “we would never discuss this level of detail in public.”
Can’t wait to hear all the dirt when I talk to them in private!
The author talks about anonymity by using a burner. My understanding is that ID is required even when purchasing a prepaid phone at a convenience store these days.
Ryan Barrett But don’t all prepaid cash cards come with some pretty hefty fees? I just got a gas card as a promo from Toyota for getting a new car, and the card costs $2.95 a month in fees just to keep active.
And I realize that’s 0.6%, but that % effectively increases monthly as you draw down your account, but the fee stays fixed, however long it takes you to get to zero.
And finally, I get that $3 a month is a low added fee for using cards to achieve the goals you had, Ryan, and the goals the article suggests AM users have. JUSSAYIN, those buggers cost money, not dollar for dollar worthwhile to sub in.
sharp eye! lots of them do have fees; they vary widely. the simon cards i used had a small monthly fee, but it only kicked in after a year or so, which i never hit.
honestly, for me, the inconvenience far outweighed any monetary cost, and even then i still did it. go figure.
Ryan did you ever blog about your antics/goals? Interested to read more
The best quote in here is about using your wife’s info to make credit card purchases.
definitely!
https://snarfed.org/2011-08-03_why_im_weird_about_privacy
https://snarfed.org/privacy_through_prepaid_credit_cards
…but more interesting, at least to me:
https://snarfed.org/2013-04-13_the-no-network-effect
Thanks to you I am not on the list ;-)
Archived the article here.
Another one! This time in the WSJ. You Weren’t Born in 1905? Why People Lie to Facebook, by Heidi Vogt (@heidivogt).