Online Shopping

Here are some tips to preserve your privacy when you're shopping online.

E-mail

You can use e-mail alias services such as simplelogin.io or addy.io to create cloaked e-mail addresses. Any e-mail sent to this cloaked address will forward to your real e-mail address. This keeps your real e-mail address private. This can also be used to subscribe to newsletters. getnada.com and guerillamail.com are great for one time use.

Physical Address

Use a P.O. Box, work address, or parcel locker to have goods sent to, instead of giving away your home address. In Australia, you can sign up for a free Australia Post parcel locker. If you're buying bitcoin related items, this may prove to be prudent in the long run.

Phone number

You can use an e-sim from silent.link as a phone number to give out. Alternatively, Bitrefill.com also does e-sims. If you require phone one-time code verification, you can use textverified.com, which you can fund with bitcoin.

Payment

The best way to improve your privacy is to pay directly using bitcoin, or gift cards. This is where Bitrefill.com shines. Credit cards are problematic because you're entering bank details on to a website. PayPal is problematic because it sends your address to the seller.

Accounts

If you have an account with an online store, be sure you have two factor authentication enabled (if available) with a strong password, ideally generated using a password manager. Never re-use passwords.

Why go to these lengths?

Time and time again, we see online store databases get leaked. Passwords, home addresses, e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers, credit card details. This is valuable data all neatly packaged up. Unfortunately, when these details get into the wrong hands, it can be devastating. It can range from e-mail spam, phishing attempts, theft of funds, all the way to physical threats and kidnappings.

Might be worth thinking twice before you punch in personal details on to a website.