Hi everyone,
I’m looking into privacy.com since some times now and I really like the idea of a credit card masking service for my online purchases. Unfortunately privacy.com is U.S only… what about someone living in canada ?
A bit of context on why I’m looking for that :
What I first wanted to achieve : I started this journey motivated by 2 techlore videos about trying to live without credit card. So I wanted to try to achieve credit card independence for fun, as an experience, knowing it would most probably fail but to see what I could learn from that. My original idea was «let’s see if I could pay everything in life using Monero or BTC». Obviously my attempts to achieve that failed miserably but it was fun and I discovered new things, I learned a lot and I’m still paying some things in BTC nowadays that I was paying by credit card before that.
What I then ended up wanting to reach : trying, at least, to have online payment privacy. I figured out privacy.com would be a great, easy to use, way to do that.
I checked for a good alternative on multiple forums, on alternativeto.net , I searched the web, I’ve even tried Revolut some years ago but it didn’t do the job. At this point my conclusion is that there is no good alternative to privacy.com in Canada. But before pulling the plug on this idea I want to try a last effort : asking you guys for advice. So if you have any I’ll be happy to read your answers
One of the reasons Privacy(dot)com is so vital in the US is because (from what I’ve been told) their banking rules are a lot more lax. Places like Europe, Canada, and so on, have a lot more rules on what can/cannot be done, when it comes to managing finances (including, but limited to banking). In some ways, this is a good thing, as you have better protections, due to regulation. In other ways, like with this, it has it’s downsides.
As a result there is no good option, outside the US. If it was possible, someone (Privacy or MySudo) almost certainly would offer this functionality. Some folks might suggest Revolut, KoHo, or something else… but they don’t really have the best reputation. It’s been a couple of years since I looked at Revolut, but when I was a member (bad move), it was very sketchy, wanted so much of my data, and their customer service was terrible (trying to delete my account).
The app contains a ton of trackers, from Google, Huawai, and more.
The app has some sketchy permissions. Wanting Bluetooth access, wanting to know all the Bluetooth devices around you, read all the accounts on your device, read and write access to your contacts, external and internal storage read/write access, read your call log, have camera and microphone access.
Revolut has a poor history of handling clients data, leading to folks getting scammed. You can learn more about that on this old (but still valid, as it still happens) post here. A quick search found tons more examples, from as early as last month, going back several years.
Due to how financials work, their Privacy Policy is pretty bad, for privacy. They don’t really keep your information private. You might as well just bank with anyone else, preferably someone more reputable.
In many EU countries, they are a registered bank. If you use Revolut, you are opening an account with that bank, and you get the same financial insurance you get with any other bank in case they close their business. They regulated as any other bank in terms of data security, and you need to provide the same documentation as you would in any other bank.
But in terms of privacy, I don’t see how privacy.com is any different, you are only able to hide your credit card number from the merchant, which most of the time doesn’t really matter because they have your shipping address.
Privacy.com isn’t able to hide your transaction history from the government, banks, or credit card companies.
This isn’t true, Privacy.com would also hide your transactions from your bank (optionally) and from card companies and marketing companies which have access to the card network.
Also, my understanding is that Revolut cards (and similar services in the EU) have to be used with your name and billing address still, which makes them significantly worse than Privacy.com cards.
Privacy.com is the best service, Maybe ask a User about its features. They tell you what they do on their website or if you use their service you can use discreet merchant feature to hide your transaction history with “NSA Gift Shop” which I use, and your banks will see “NSA Gift Shop”. As for the shipping address information being in the U.S. is the best tbh, You can check services like traveling mailbox or https://www.postscanmail.com/
My older friends use a lot of cash, in the US we are fortunate to have so many options.
Soon I Intend to apply for a Capital One card as they have masked credit card system which i can not quote at this time the terms. Not sure if Capital One masked numbers would work outside the US.
My cash purchase have increased but my go to is prepaid credit cards. My non reoccurring online purchase have been through IronVest (DeleteMe) masked credit cards.
Enjoyed this thread as a mental exercise, we know how to make private purchase but what are we keeping private from who.
Going out to eat where your handing off your card for payment, or opening a tab at a bar where you do not see your card for a duration protects your major credit cards. Your age verification shares the address from your identification.
You can make an online purchase many ways but the shipping address is associated.
Revolut is a bank and will have the same level of privacy as any other banks in Europe. They simply offer a virtual card service - not a privacy service.
