Privacy

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Online shopping, privacy and behavior prediction. A rant. (sh.itjust.works)

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

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So years ago I made an account on an online shopping platform. I took pains to do it as privately as I could. Shipping address as PO box. Didn't use real name to sign up. Masked credit card for payment. Etc.

I had it for IDK like 6 years? 7 years? I didn't use it a LOT, but let's say once a month avg. Over those years I had 100% the best feedback rating. I never caused any prob to anyone. I acted in good faith.

Suddenly one day... account canceled. Contacted company. They said send us copy of your gov photo ID. I said how about no?

I know it was b/c my account triggered some predictive anti abuse system. Scammers do a lot of what I did. Diff is, I was not a scammer. I just wanted some privacy. Wasn't even buying anything embarrasing. Just normal shit.

I thought since I got 6+ yrs of history, spend like mid 4 digits of $$ total, zero probs, perfect feedback for 6 years, I figured hey maybe I wouldn't be lumped in. But fuck me sideways.

Funny thing is. I had an older acct under my real name. It had LESS total purcahse history. By a lot. I never submitted any ID to create it. It's still there. It still works. Diff is, it's tied to my home addy and real name. It didn't trigger anti-abuse prediction. ANd it is prediction! I never abused anything, and never would.

More and more, I can't participate in the world, if I try to protect myself from data brokers that collect every fucking thing I do.

I'm sorry. I just had to rant lol. What is your experience with online shopping, if you try to set it up not tied directly to your name, phone, & home addy?

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[–] monovergent@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

No fun. If I order something that requires a signature, I probably won't be home at the delivery time to sign the package. So it gets dropped off at the post office, and when I go there to pick it up, they also ask for an ID matching the name on the package.

Admittedly, I've stopped trying on this end since I order to my actual home address, which would be trivial for any company to trace back to my name. I try to find everything I can in a physical store and pay with cash, the rest is usually niche hobbyist electronics that would never make it to a store.

Also used to be that you could go into a physical store, buy a prepaid credit card with cash, then spend it online. But fewer and fewer websites are accepting those prepaid cards.