Being untraceable and unfindable in today's world is not an easy feat. Some will go to great extremes:
Mail addressed to him goes to a UPS Store. To buy things online, he uses a YubiKey, a small piece of hardware resembling a thumb drive, to open Bitwarden, a password manager that stores his hundreds of unique, long, random passwords. Then he logs in to Privacy.com, a subscription service that lets him open virtual debit cards under as many different names as he wishes; Harris has 191 cards at this point, each specific to a single vendor but all linked to the same bank account. This isolates risk: If any vendor is breached, whatever information it has about him won’t be exploitable anywhere else.
The truth is, not everyone faces the same level of risk. For most people, basic digital hygiene, strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and cautious sharing, offers sufficient protection without the need for extreme steps. For folks like my parents, I would say that is even the definition of extreme privacy given how microscopic their digital footprint is. My father does not believe in ATM machines or credit cards. He still writes cheques to service providers and they need to come to collect it from him at his home.
I am a bit of a privacy fanatic myself but not quite as extreme. My lived experience shows that, pushing for higher levels of privacy often comes at the cost of convenience, access to services, and social connection. The benefits of digital participation for most folks outweigh the risks of data exposure. I am undecided and can't claim that has served me well at all times.
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