The internet can be a dangerous place for your debit card. When a phishing site isn’t enticing you to hand over your account info, credit card databases are getting hacked. Privacy.com from Pay With Privacy, Inc. offers a solution to these issues that’s not just hoping for the best. Instead of putting your actual debit card number out there, the site lets you create “burner” debit cards that are locked to a single vendor, or meant to be used just one time. These aren’t physical cards for use at a local store, but digital cards for use online.
It’s kind of like a VPN for your bank account. Instead of using a bank card, you give websites an intermediary card. If that burner card should ever get caught in a database breach, it can be disabled or deleted with a few clicks. Even if the bad guys do use it, the card won’t work anywhere except at the vendor it was stolen from.