I've used privacy for a while now. I became devoted when a card I used at an independant business started being used to pay phone bills in new jersey; privacy auto blocked it. Since then, i've used it to kill subscriptions I don't want by changing to a privacy card and setting the limit to zero. Its good stuff.

The old short term profits vs long term reputation play. I appreciate streaming services that easily let me cancel or pause my subscription, it makes me much more likely to remain loyal in the sense that I will come back to them in the future.

I haven't seen it but what I often do is that I create a virtual credit card with only the amount needed - my bank makes that possible - and then they just can't get any more money and more often than not just give up. I try to cancel but sometimes it's impossible.

I've seen this in banking too. I have my health savings account with a provider that charges a percentage of your holdings as the admin fee. That can add up. My old one is a flat rate per month. I have been transferring the money every year to the flat rate provider and the process is completely arcane.

1. Find the document on their site. The correct document isn't named clearly like the document you use to pull other providers into your account.

2. You have to print it and write by hand (not an editable PDF)

3. Assuming you've done this correctly you must mail them the document, like he said, with a stamp like a fucking caveman.

4. Behind the scenes the process is even more arcane, because again they claim they PHYSICALLY MAIL A CHECK to the new provider like fucking cavemen.

It's really clear that this is in bad faith. Banking "innovation" is a joke in the US. I know that everyone hates crypto up in this bitch (I get it), but a little self custody would go a long way in situations like this.

Idk, I'd assume if I just delete the credit card and they can't charge it, they'll just keep sending me bills with increasingly insane late fees, effectively putting me in huge debt over time

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=XdQHuLHBP6g

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

I wonder if he is aware of the long history of using a black cat logo for similar kinds of direct action? Seems almost too much of a coincidence with the way his "Clinton the cat" logo looks like.

I loved Privacy .com . Used it for all my online purchases before I got a credit card, and they had my back when I submitted a chargeback against a merchant that turned out to be fraudulent.

I stopped using it 2 months ago, as I got hit with KYC and now need to submit my SSN to them to unpause my account. I asked them why, letting them know that I've never caused them any trouble, using it only for things like streaming subscriptions and movie ticket purchases. This is what they had to say:

Due to changes in our compliance obligations, we've had to add SSN to our list of required information necessary to use our service. As with the rest of your signup info, none of this is shared with the merchants and services you use Privacy Cards for.

The change isn't driven by anything specific to your account but an across-the-board policy change to ensure we're keeping up with best industry practices.

The information is fully encrypted and not visible on your Privacy profile. In the unlikely event that an unknown party accesses your Privacy Account or our system, they won't be able to obtain it.

My credit card has a similar virtual credit card (VCC) service, so I switched to using that. Giving them my SSN is unavoidable, so I might as well use their service and earn some points.

Since we're on !privacy@lemmy.ml, thought it would also be a good heads-up letting everyone know that they use Plaid for linking your bank account to your Privacy account. Plaid settled for $58 million in a suit that alleged they (1) obtained more financial data than was needed by a user's app, and (2) obtained log-in credentials (username and password) through its user interface, known as “Plaid Link,” which had the look and feel of the user's own bank account login screen, when users were actually providing their login credentials directly to Plaid.

I got $35 from it.

My non-professional opinion: I don't see anything wrong with them. I like their service, I just don't want to give my SSN to yet another company, if I can avoid it.

Interestingly, I can't get to privacy.com while on Proton VPN.

If you use cash, crypto or goldbacks (goldbacks are not popular however) each payment is one time. Another reason why cash, crypto and the goldback are based.