At some point, you're going to have to trust someone. Bottom line. Tho I am diligent about being as self sustainable as possible, there are times when I do have to avail modern conveniences. Some of the things I may need can not be sourced local. That means online shopping, no matter how I may feel about shopping online. Back in the day, you'd have to travel fairly far to purchase what was needed. That may not be feasible anymore.

Sometimes privacy, anonymity, and security are not set in stone policies. Sometimes it's a rolling target.

Second hand sales and flee markets, no cameras (mostly true) and you can pay cash.

One thing that's worth keeping in mind: physical retailers may have cameras, but they (in general) rotate their recordings and don't provide an API for law enforcement. By contrast, any data that an online service gets is probably stored forever, possibly across multiple companies. If you do pick up the online package at a physical store, then you're losing most of the benefits, so you also need to provide an address.

That being said, much of China and some of the US have significant outdoor surveillance camera networks. These usually do provide law enforcement with real time, AI search, and may keep recordings for a very long

For me, as a Canadian, I'd consider physical stores more private, maybe putting on generic clothing and a mask if it's really important. If your city has its own surveillance system, that might be different for you. Though really, in that case, you should be more concerned about pushing for the cameras to be removed, or failing that looking into moving elsewhere: it is not sufficient to have privacy only online, only from major storefronts.

IRL, you're not a VIP so you won't be targeted alone.

If you have to do the internet route, prepaid cards, minimal info, and pick-up locations are best, don't deliver to your door. You could maybe deliver it to your post office too, that may be an option.

IRL : I'd argue most security cameras are, AFAIK, on closed circuits. I don't think they can upload the data somewhere nor keep it for a long time. Also it takes quite a bit of power to process so unless there is a good reason for it, I doubt anybody nor even a computer vision algorithm, will process it to the point of face recognition.

Online : virtual credit card (not sure if they need your name) + PO box, post office or next door store compatible with the online shop. Most online shop I know do NOT require a mobile phone number. They might have a field for it but they are not using it for e.g. 2FA so if you were, by mistake or not, to put a random number I don't think it would matter.

So at least some of the constraints can be changed.

I have been deliberating this lately. Mainly due to online providers overreaching. I recently bought a small common office product. Click and collect. I ensured to click no comms/marketing. 2 times in the following 4 days I got an email offering an apple subscription from a no reply email address. I had to call and complain to get them to stop and they had the cheek to say they HAD to legally offer me this as it was free perk with my purchase. They didnt see how they could be wrong and tried to convince me this was not marketing and was infact a great deal for me. I asked him if I’d walked in store would I have been forced to somehow take the offer.

I am sick of my contact details and my spending ability being considered fair game.