Let's face it, gadget-fans. Our particular hobby can render us particularly unprivate people. These days, you can't so much as turn on a telephone without telling a half-dozen corporations everything from your birthday to your blood type. Vanishing Point: How to disappear in America without a trace is a somewhat wild-eyed journey into the bloody-minded near-impossibility of doing exactly that, even for the most diligent and privacy-minded citizen.
For us, however, there is little hope at this point for living off the
"transaction grid." There are, however, a few practical ways to help prevent a love of technology translating into an all-but-public portfolio of purchases.
1. Don't get Cable TV or a landline. The operators sell your personal information immediately to everyone who will pay for it.
2. Don't sign up for cellphone contracts (or any other kind of subscription plan that involves credit checks). Pay as you go!
3. Use cash for everything you can. When a cashier asks for your zip code, give them the next one over. Buy nothing whatsoever on credit, or
"hire purchase," or under any terms that involves you giving information in lieu of money.
4. Don't get grocery store discount cards. Hell, don't sign up for anything. But if you do, swap your card with a friend to mess up the databases. Don't buy gadgets in grocery stores, even if they do give you 10 for the price of 9.
5. Live in a hut and subsist on lentils, boiled grass and EVDO.
How to Disappear in America Without a Trace [Skeptic Tank via Consumerist]
