Privacy.com is awesome. You can create throwaway credit cards for every site you pay on, and you can set whatever limits you want on those cards. You can sign up for an online service or free trial without having to worry about dark patterns. If I feel like I want 3 months of a service, I could make a credit card with the exact amount available to pay for 3 months and nothing more.

The payments are not anonymous, but they do protect you in other ways. Besides the limits, each virtual CC can be used on only one website or business. During the height of Covid here in Boston we were doing a lot of curbside pickup. Local shops would ask you for your credit card number over the phone which always makes me nervous because I know they’re just writing it down on a piece of paper. It feels so much safer to give them a throwaway virtual credit card, knowing that the number is pretty much useless to anybody who finds that piece of paper.