Amazon is a contractor for the CIA, so it’s no surprise that they are among the most annoying retailers with identity verification, KYC documents, and data collection. Amazon will track your purchases and use AI to predict what you will buy next.
While this might seem innocent on the surface, Amazon is selling your information to the government and other third parties to enable them to track your location and activity and even maliciously compromise your hardware. As Edward Snowden noted:
“People say, the CIA’s not going to be breaking into my house, that’s true — but they don’t go into your house. They wait for when these devices are being shipped to you, when you order them on Amazon or whatever. They go to them at the airports, they get the box, they use a little hairdryer to soften the adhesive, they open the box, then they put the USB stick in. They seal the box back up all nice and perfect, and then they ship it on to you. And now your router, your computer, your TV is hacked. This is a very routine thing that happens.”
-Edward Snowden interview with Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept
From Amazon purchases alone, third party database brokers and governments may be able to get a clear view into your professional life, medical problems, what you’re reading, what you’re thinking, and your intimate relationships. The more data that they collect on you, the more Amazon can sell cloud storage to the CIA!
There are some who advocate for the boycott of Amazon because of their involvement with the CIA, who has a long history of funding and organizing genocide on minorities. We maintain a neutral stance on this boycott issue, but if you are going to use Amazon, we’ll discuss here how to do it privately. You will get a lot out of subscribing for free to our new content by email or RSS feed.
Issues with Gift Cards
What’s frustrating is that if you were to buy an Amazon gift card for cryptocurrency on Bitrefill or Coincards, then you’d still have to have an alternative payment method like a credit card just so they can verify your identity.
One possibility is to give a friend the gift card and have them buy something for both of you as payment for using his or her mailbox and identity.
Privacy.com cards
Another possibility is to use a service such as Privacy.com which hides your credit card information from vendors and banks. This service allows you to create a virtual card with a phony name.
You can then use this on Amazon and have it delivered to one of the Amazon dropboxes. By picking it up at the Amazon dropbox with a bullshit name and Privacy.com credit card, you keep your data to yourself.
However, while this hides the purchase from Amazon and your bank, the negative of Privacy.com is that you have to KYC to Privacy.com with photos of you holding your ID.
Purse.io
Purse.io is an exchange, that allows you to buy Amazon products without KYC for Bitcoin. The company doesn’t buy the products themselves, but instead matches you with a random “buyer” who trades his or her Amazon gift cards for your Bitcoin. These buyers are basically purchasing Bitcoin disguised to their bank or credit card company as buying Amazon items.
The random buyer you get assigned does the KYC for you. So Purse.io is our #1 recommendation for privacy on Amazon.
However, you will still have the problem of to where to deliver the items. If you buy through Purse.io, you can’t use an Amazon dropbox pickup, and Amazon will be able to see the shipping address. So if you have a PO Box or private mailing service, this is a great choice. Or you could pay a random individual to do it. Low skilled workers with bad English might be a good choice for setting up an anonymous mailbox for you. Some areas such as Las Vegas allow for anonymous mail.
Another possibility is to use the direct chat of Purse.io to ask the random buyer you’re matched with if he or she wold get the item from Amazon and then ship it to you for a little extra Bitcoin.
Problems with Purse.io
Purse.io has some problems beyond the shipping issue. Frequently items are out of stock on Amazon, which causes either a delay or full cancellation of the order. If there’s just a delay and not a cancellation, then the price of Bitcoin may have fluctuated wildly during this time.
For example, you buy a smartphone, and then the price of Bitcoin collapses. Then you find out 3 weeks later that the item is out of stock. Now you’d like a different model phone, but the $USD700 you originally sent is now worth only $USD500.
While Amazon is annoying with having items listed that later can’t be filled, Purse.io extends the time the transaction takes. This is because first you have to wait for a match with a buyer and then multiple buyers may be unable to fill the order and cancel it before it becomes clear as to the reason.
We have a few tips to avoid this cancellation issue. Our recommendation is to make sure the item is available and in stock on Amazon directly before buying it on Purse.io. If there’s only 1 or 2 left, don’t do it unless you don’t mind the Bitcoin fluctuation risk.
Our second tip is to directly message through the Purse.io customer chat with the buyer that you’re matched with. Ask the buyer up front if he or she can’t fill it because it’s out of stock. Sometimes this won’t be communicated, and it’s not until the second buyer comes in and cancels the order that Purse.io realizes what happened and ends the trade.
Purse.io Customer Service
Purse.io is criticized on review sites for slow customer service time. We have found from our experience this to be NOT TRUE and they are actually pretty reliable. These criticisms may have been true in the past, but it seems like the service has improved in this regard.
We are not being paid for this review and we have no affiliate links that could compromise our judgment.
Purse.io 2FA
Purse.io will require a TOTP 2FA. You can use Keypass XC on a Linux PC (as we taught in our earlier article which you can find here). Avoid doing this on an actual phone (and if you have to then use and OTP).
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