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Privacy.com Situation Is Insane

Privacy Guides

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Recently, digital rights activist and YouTuber Louis Rossmann revoked his endorsement of Privacy.com. But this is a problem bigger than one provider.

Rossmann's video: revoking my endorsement of privacy.com
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Private Payment Recommendations: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/fina...
Data Breach Roundups: https://www.privacyguides.org/posts/t...

0:00 Introduction
1:07 What is Privacy.com?
2:00 What's the Issue?
2:50 Point 1: Privacy is Not Anonymity
4:06 Point 2: Everyone Does KYC
6:19 Point 3: Persona is No Worse (or Better) Than Competitors
7:27 What to Do
10:00 Alternatives to Privacy.com

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20 Comments

@ZGoddessLola 2 days ago

Anonymity is thw highest level of privacy. End of text.

@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios 2 days ago

LOST ME at Peter Thiel

@micromem 1 day ago

Louis Rossman seems to be the last bastian of integrity, everyone else seems to read the room but still sway because "they've had nothing but good service". It's depressing.

@loganfilmoto286 2 days ago

A "privacy" company partnering with a literal surveillance company in persona tells you how much they care about YOUR privacy

No amount of mental gymnastics can fix that bud

@テレビスマート 2 days ago (edited)

> In February and March 2026, researchers discovered thousands of files and frontend source code from Persona exposed on the open internet via a government-authorized endpoint.

Yeah, no. Today it's testing env, tomorrow it's client data.

@adamjutras7024 2 days ago

Supporters of KYC can change the "C" to an "S".

@Sidecutter 2 days ago

In all fairness, the decisions of the elected officials are being corrupted and misled BY the companies doing all this shit. If we put them out for their actions they can't bribe our officials and the problem is solved. The politicians listen to their donors, and that's not us.

@u40149 2 days ago

Also alternatives exist to uploading biometric and ID. For example, a mailed or printed affidavit via US Mail signed by a notary who would authenticate the identity of the individual. Notaries are more readily available than most think.

@TheCaminor 2 days ago

Now I personally don’t believe I had to go through the AI screening thing, as I think I set my account up, and I personally have never had them charge a closed card, as I have always had to go and change the limit and forget about a limit and have to increase it to successfully charge. The only thing I will say is my biggest complaint is their lack of customer service support, if they flag your account for fraud, you get booted to a basic account and you cannot talk to anybody quickly

@graywz 2 days ago

"Funded by Thiel" is a plague that automatically disqualifies any company from association or recommendation. You have to assume the company is compromised and unethical in some ways.

@plusone.network 2 days ago

If they are a for profit company their first fiduciary duty is indeed making profit….not privacy or security or anonymity….just to be clear.

@OverAnalyst 2 days ago

7:08 I'd call Thiel an enemy of humanity at this point, not just privacy. I just cancelled my Chipotle account because Palantir. Would rather get explosive diarrhea from a homemade taco salad. This isn't my field though, so I appreciate your perspective (& Rossman's).

@Dragon_Slayer_Ornstein 2 days ago (edited)

The problem is they keep your data for 3 years and do god knows what with it, plus they could get hacked at some point within those 3 years.

So no it's not private if it randomly gets dumped on a Russian dark web site or a torrent in 6 months time. I don't think anyone is really disputing you need to verify yourself when signing up to a service, but they should be deleting all that data once they have confirmed who you are.

The fact that the service thinks it's OK with their customers submitting to that says a lot about the company and their intentions.

@Yosssi 2 days ago

Thanks for your attention to this matter!!

@c5on 2 days ago

It is so weird to even try to defend this.

@hiphopsecops 2 days ago

The only way I've found around this and it's temporary, is prepaid debit cards. They can be used with out KYC for about 90 days

@LazarusKirk-s2q 2 days ago

Give data to one. Give data to all. Such BS. Plus, you have to use a debit card, which is much harder to get your money back if you have a issue.

@Ilovepastatoo 2 days ago

One more reason piracy is sometimes ethical and justified. Never ever give your ID or show your face to ANY online website ever.

@GFbdD-y2g 2 days ago

Why didn't they require verification for years... Did any laws change?

@vanesslifeygo 2 days ago

where I am at, you cannot buy gift cards from a store wall without filling out a form that can be matched to your id. it even has a field for the SSN on it, but I do not know if it is really required. There are very few exceptions. Google cards for example does not result in you being asked for info.