Even if a person created a fake alternative email address their billing information directly incriminated them. Years ago, you could easily use giftcards to protect your privacy. Then, around 2-3 years ago Visa changed their policies and became completely useless for legal purchases of legal content that didn't expose consumers to undue risk--essentially you could buy porn online without having to worry about embarrassing records being collected just like you could purchase dvd's and vhs's of porn with cash in brick and mortar stores. Now, within the last 2 or so months, the Mastercard has seemed to fall as well.
Ashley Madison demonstrates just how DANGEROUS it is to purchase things online that you do not want to potentially be linked to. I like to actually PAY for high quality porn, but I do NOT like to EVER feel like I have to disclose exactly who I am to do so. Unlike buying a physical object through, say, Amazon, Nothing has to be shipped to a physical place that I am directly linked to.
I should be able to go to work, make my money doing a job a fucking hate/sometimes vaguely enjoy at best, and use maybe 60-120 bucks to purchase porn online, with MY OWN MONEY, without fear of my purchases ever becoming public or even EVER become privately available to authorities that might not have my best interest in mind (what happens when I am ran through a "deep search," do my porn purchases charged by "innocuous" sounding fake company names suddenly become completely transparent and comedy material to the people who have access to such material and are in charge of hiring for, say a government institution?)
What are the alternatives? Seriously, I think it is a major problem, especially when consideration of the overall size of the pornog industry is taken into account. Any payment method that requires one to disclose a social security number to verify their identity is worthless and potentially incriminating and endangering to ALL consumers.
How can we get around this? It extends beyond just porn to be honest--I found out about Visa's giftcards making their policy changes because for years I purchased Netflix using them and then suddenly I was denied access and spent around 5 hours one night getting it sorted out between them and Visa---and caught the Visa customer service agent in a direct lie.
I just purchased more than a couple hundred dollars worth of Mastercards recently because I didn't know they had, for all intents and purposes as far as citizens concerned with privacy go, become completely useless. I guess I can use them as gas cards and never purchase them again, and advocate against others purchasing them as well.
But with the "Big Two" gone, and Paypal cards requiring verification through social security numbers, what is a concerned citizen to do? I DO NOT WANT my Reality Kings, Dogfart, and, most of all, my (insert name of hardcore legal but embarrassing porn site) membership to EVER be able to be linked to me, I feel I should be able to pay for them anonymously just like buying an old fashioned DVD from a brick and mortar store in cash would protect me from ever later being linked.
How can WE reclaim this?
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[–] Stressed_Gout [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
The thing is, I don't mind paying for quality porn. For reality Kings, for instance, I found a 10 dollar a month deal, so by having an account I can download all the videos I want which aren't readily available and sometimes a hassle to track down, so it is worth it to me in time saved and having access to hd files