Protecting your privacy through disposable personal information
Anonymous | October 8, 2022
Protecting your privacy through disposable personal information
The next time you sign up for a coupon code or make an online purchase, take these simple steps to protect yourself from fraud.
Paying for goods and services online is a common way that many of us conduct business nowadays. In addition to paying for these goods and services, whatever platform we chose to use on the web typically requires us to sign up for new accounts. This leaves the privacy of our sensitive personal information such as credit card details, name, email address at the mercy of the organizations or platforms we conduct business on. Using disposable personal information might be an easy way to safeguard our information in the event of a data breach.
What is disposable personal information?
Disposable or virtual card numbers are like physical credit cards but they only exist in a virtual form. A virtual credit card is a random 16-digit number associated with an already-existing credit card account. A virtual card becomes available for use immediately after being generated and is usually only valid for 10 minutes after. The original credit card number remains hidden from the merchant. This offers customers security by protecting information directly linked to bank accounts and can help limit how much information is accessible to fraudsters if a customer’s information is stolen in a phishing scam or a data breach.
Disposable email on the other hand, is a service that allows a registered user to receive emails at a temporary address that expires after a certain time period. A disposable email account has its own inbox, reply and forward functions. You should still be able to log into the app or service you’ve signed up for, but once the email address expires, you won’t be able to reset your password, delete your account, or do anything else using that email. Depending on the service, you might be able to change your disposable email address for a real one.
How do you create your own disposable information?
The easiest way to create your own virtual credit card is to request one through your credit card issuer. Many banks such as Capital One and Citi Bank offer virtual cards as a feature. Check with your financial institution if they have this service. Another option is to save your personal financial information, along with address on Google Chrome and allow the browser to automatically populate this information when you have to pay online. Google encrypts this information so that the merchant has no visibility to your sensitive information. Lastly, you can use an app like Privacy to generate virtual card numbers for online purchases. With this app, you can also create virtual cards for specific merchants and set spending limits on those cards, along with time limits on when they expire.
Creating disposable email addresses for web logins is straightforward if you have an Apple device. The option to use disposable email addresses is already an included feature. If the app or website you are using offers a Sign In With Apple option, you can register with your Apple ID, and select Hide My Email in the sharing option. By selecting this option, Apple generates a disposable email address for you, which relays messages to your main address.
You can also use services such as Guerilla Mail or 10-Minute Mail to generate a disposable email address.
References:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/what-is-a-virtual-credit-card-number
https://www.wired.com/story/avoid-spam-disposable-email-burner-phone-number/