privacy Archives - Empathic Finance

Going Plaid: Would you give up your bank login credentials?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on February 6, 2023 | Featured

A service called Plaid wants to connect to your bank account with your username and password. What could possibly go wrong? Another day, another Silicon Valley company that seeks to take a system that functioned and insert themselves into it, … Read More … Read More

Tags: bank account, bank accounts, plaid, privacy, security

The internet really doesn’t want you to be untraceable

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on August 9, 2018 | Featured

Right after I started using a VPN for all my internet traffic, so that I could remain anonymous in my browsing habits, I started having technical troubles. It started with Amazon. I don’t shop Amazon all that much (I think … Read More … Read More

Tags: NordVPN, privacy, VPN

Online trust, or How to figure out your biggest threats online

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on April 9, 2018 | Featured

Greetings from Seattle, Washington! Actually, hello from Charlotte, North Carolina! On second thought, salutations from somewhere in Azerbaijan! It’s fun to be anywhere at the click of a button. By this I mean, anywhere as far as my computer traffic … Read More … Read More

Tags: privacy, trust, VPN

How I tried to buy something totally anonymously online

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on March 29, 2018 | Featured

My experiences with trying to buy something online without revealing anything about my identity, and why this is so difficult. (I talk about using products or services, but I received no commission for this. I do not do affiliate marketing. … Read More … Read More

Tags: anonymity, gift cards, NordVPN, payments, prepaid gift cards, privacy, VPN

Why it’s so hard to buy online and maintain any privacy

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on March 26, 2018 | Featured

In a perfect world, no one would have any right to know what I buy, where I go, and what I do unless I gave them that access. This seems rather quaint now. Today, everything you do is scrutinized, advertised, … Read More … Read More

Tags: anonymity, online shopping, privacy, purchases

3 reasons to get a post office box

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on November 23, 2015 | Featured

I visited Portland for the summer before I moved there. While I was there, I signed up for a post office (PO) box for getting mail. My thinking was that it would be nice (and possibly advantageous) to jumpstart … Read More … Read More

Tags: anonymity, mail, PO Box, privacy

Why you never have to give out your email address to get online

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on September 7, 2015 | Featured

Don’t you hate it when you can’t get online unless input your email address? How frustrating. Well I say, the hell with them. I’m talking about WiFi captive portals. These are the screens that show up when you first … Read More … Read More

Tags: online, privacy

Why you have something to hide online

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on October 2, 2014 | Featured

Google’s Eric Schmidt famously said that “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” I get writer’s block thinking about all the ways that this statement … Read More … Read More

Tags: hiding, privacy, web browsers

The four questions to ask yourself before posting anything online

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on September 29, 2014 | Featured

Hi everyone. Read about any compromising pictures of famous people being leaked online lately? Pardon me while I bang my head against the wall. I’m not sure if I’m more angry at some people or mortified for others. I … Read More … Read More

Tags: communication, online, posting, privacy

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