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Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

The number one thing that we do is use an assumed name and address (and phone number) for all online interactions.

If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info.

So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio.

As I have mentioned here many, many times:

This is possible because VISA/MC do not verify cardholder name. They make it seem like they do and merchants think that they do ... but they do not. You can just enter "Mickey Mouse" and it will work just fine.[1][2]

Lyft, opentable, Toasttab, Apple ... none of them have ever seen our real names or addresses.

[1] This is not true of AMEX - they do verify cardholder name the way people think they do.

[2] There is a very rare, seldom used "verified by visa" step that some online merchants used to use (mostly in Europe) that did verify cardholder name ... but I have not seen it in years ...

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Maybe you're a very high profile individual that this matters beyond paranoia? I've always used my name for signups, and I have a very unique name, probably the only one on the whole planet. It has affected my life in no meaningful / noticeably negative way.

The reason I do this is that there are fascinating and unpredictable interactions between behavior and identity that extend out into the indeterminate future.

If we assume this information persists forever - and we might as well - it represents infinite liability and risk whereas the mitigations I have proposed cost almost nothing.

Or, to put it another way, it's very cheap insurance.

You're saying the word "unpredictable" but with cognitive dissonance, because you are predicting disaster.

If it is truly unpredictable, then you may be diminishing something which may actually be beneficial and necessary in the future.

This obfuscated data which may or may not be linked to you (or the lack of data entirely, a void which certainly is linked to you) is itself forever persistent and represents its own infinite liability.

Not to say that you're wrong or right, just pointing out that your claim of somehow rising above this system is bogus. No matter what we do, our mark (be it a shadow profile or a void) is left, and perceptions will form around it that cannot be predicted.

Or even worse -- behaviors that attempt to hide identity may in the future be the exact sort of thing they use to do forensic sweeps. Unfortunately, I think that is just as likely as anything else.

Life is finite

A life span is finite, but your life during the life span is infinite.

See chaos theory's infinitely long line in a finite-sized circle

Data is forever

"A datum is forever" - De Nerds circa 2022, inspired by a quip from one royaltjames of the same era

I like this a lot more than the De Beers campaign popularized in the late 1940s[0]!

[0]: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-yo...

> Maybe you're a very high profile individual that this matters beyond paranoia?

You can call it paranoia. I'd call it a healthy value of privacy.

Nothing stops a company from taking your name from your credit card and using it to build/sell shadow profiles except their word. Companies' words aren't worth shit.

Collecting personal data is insidious: it doesn't manifest itself until it does. It's no different from having your password leaked, or from having your mortgage application rejected for opaque reasons.

The data is there, silently, stored for a future use which may come at an unpredictable time.

Can you guarantee that will be the case at any point in the future?

same.

> So, for instance, Amazon has a made-up name and our PO BOX and our "junk" number from Twilio.

If you're worried about the government prying, using a fake name on a PO box is a great way to rouse suspicion and investigations into whether or not you're doing something nefarious with the post.

We don't use a fake name on the PO BOX. It is the vendor (like Amazon) that gets a fake name (and our po box).

The post office (quasi-government agency) knows who we are.

> If it's not a government agency, it doesn't get any real info.

I don't think rsync is worried about government prying.

Just curious - do you have Lyft pick you up or drop you off at your house/apt or do you avoid that as well? I think of that action as different from payment information verification.

"Just curious - do you have Lyft pick you up or drop you off at your house/apt or do you avoid that as well?"

We live on a ranch at the end of a 2 mile private road.

Lyft is something we use in the city or while traveling.

However, I do understand the spirit of your question and I don't have formal practices for these kind of things.

Like a sibling comment said, life is short ...

don't use Lyft or Uber. Why would I want a company to keep track where I'm going linked to my credit card. It is creepy.

Yes, sure. But he mentioned Lyft so I asked.

Is this a disaster waiting to happen if visa/mc one day flip the switch on name verification?

Beyond that, for the type of tracking and fingerprinting done today, how relevant is your name actually?

> Is this a disaster waiting to happen if visa/mc one day flip the switch on name verification?

Doesn't even have to be that big of a policy change; if Facebook gets suspicious about you using a fake name or various other scenarios, they'll lock your account until you provide a scan of a passport or state ID.

You are assuming that a person who is cautious about privacy, uses facebook. Unlikely. However, I have been in that alley. I renamed my facebook account yearly, until it got blocked indeed. But then again, there are some great ID .psd templates out there:P solved it immediately.

I cite Facebook as a specific example I'm aware of. There's no reason Amazon or Apple (which the parent poster indicates they use) couldn't request similar docs with the threat of an account revocation.

And how and why exactly would rsync care about that?

Amazon account gets blocked? He gets a new one. If they block him because they check the PO box against blocked accounts, he gets a new PO box too. Sure it's a hassle because he probably uses it for other stuff too. But nothing really preventing him from doing the fake name+PO box thing for a small likelihood of this ever happening and he'd probably gladly just get a new on if it ever did and there was no other way to convince them.

Same with Apple. Apple id gets blocked? Get a new one. I somehow doubt he's bought (err, sorry, rented) thousands of dollars worth of digital content on either platform that would discourage this. Streaming is fine as you can stream the same stuff again on the new account.

For a lot of stuff your credit card number is the reliable join key anyway

In Europe your payment will most likely fail if your name doesn't match your card's and often even if your address doesn't match the address on your card.

Sad.

Also, knowing how bureaucratic Europe is, I can totally see myself having a warranty claim rejected because of a name mismatch.

Whose name the warranty is in and who pays for the warranty should not be required to be identical.

There are plenty of non-transferable warranties out there.

That's not the point. The point is that one person should absolutely 100% be capable of paying for a warranty for a third party. That's not transferring a warranty; that's guaranteeing payment.

No that doesn't happen

I always type something random in the cardholder field and it was never rejected. European cards and websites. The store can see what you entered in that field though through the payment gateway.

I can understand this sentiment. I certainly do it for some things (like reddit accounts, or things to do with say....gaming online, steam etc).

For most things though I dont mind too much about things that are already public anyhow. Like name, address etc.

That said for services that extend beyond that, If i feel the need to go that far i just dont participate. Like facebook for example.

I do carry a google voice number. That is the only thing a company, service or basically anything that gets typed into a computer gets. It has signifigantly cut down on spam calls to my actual cell phone, which friends and family do have.

Merchants can and do check names but it’s not mandatory for a charge. Credit card number and expiration dates are the only required info.

All the big tech companies almost certainly have your real name on file. Im assuming its very easy to buy large datasets matching real name,cc and email.

The only really private way to use these services would be using something like burnermail.io and crypto.

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