Ask Slashdot: What Are Anonymous Ways To Pay For Goods and Services?

Long-time Slashdot reader mspohr submitted a report a couple of days ago from Richard Stallman via The Guardian, which argues that we should be able to pay for news anonymously. "Online newspapers and magazines have come to depend, for their income, on a system of advertising and surveillance, which is both annoying and unjust... What they ought to do instead is give us a truly anonymous way to pay." In response to that report, an anonymous Slashdot reader writes: There was a recent article posted here on Slashdot about Richard Stallman and his attempt to make paying for online content anonymous. The corollary to that question is: What are the remaining ways to pay for stuff -- in the "real" world and online -- that are truly anonymous? Even cash can be tracked, but what about other methods? Have we completely given up on anonymous payments? No more anonymous/numbered bank accounts, no more pre-paid/virtual bank cards in Europe (just happened recently), for that matter no more prepaid phone numbers (you have to register the number in Europe)? What is left after we had let the politicos run rampant with forced registrations of all payment services?

Comments

Sexual favors

[Anonymous Coward]

Barter sexual favors

hard currency

[Lead Butthead]

You know, that paper money you referred to as cash isn't hard currency; it's fiat currency.
Let's hope the faith we have in the government continue unabated.
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Government was a lot like a religion, but lately it felt a lot closer to a cult.

Amazing nobody has answered the question yet

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Buy a prepaid visa with cash
2) Use a library PC to create an Amazon account
3) Ship the merchandise to an Amazon Locker.

Re:the more guns you have, the more likely you are

[x0ra]

False. Canadian data show that suicide rates are *not* affected by easy access to firearm, which remains constant post gun control laws.

Re:the more guns you have, the more likely you are

[PopeRatzo]

There are still quite a few relatively easy ways to kill yourself, even without a gun.

But those ways aren't used nearly as often. and they're not nearly as lethal. Some of the most common means of attempting suicides have a success rate of around 5-10%. Very nearly 70% of all successful suicides are with a firearm. Not the number of attempts mind you, but the number of successes. All those other "relatively easy" ways to commit suicide are very often unsuccessful, and that means those people have a chance to get help. Firearm suicides are successful just about 90% of the time, which means a gun owner having a very bad day might be dead when if they didn't have ready access to a gun, they'd still be alive. And if they're still alive, they are very unlikely to die of suicide later.

High-gun ownership states have suicide rates just about double that of low-gun ownership states.

Oh yeah, people who attempt suicide and are unsuccessful are unlikely (less than 10%) to die by suicide later. But since only about 10% of gun-related suicide attempts survive, it's too late for them. Now put all that together for yourself.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/m...

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/m...

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/m...