This still puts you at greater risk of exposure than creating a Gmail account through an anonymizing proxy. I note that you've specifically gone to the most ex

This still puts you at greater risk of exposure than creating a Gmail account through an anonymizing proxy. I note that you've specifically gone to the most extreme case of the state looking to track you rather than some other private entity. The NSA/FBI looking at camera footage at the point of purchase for a cash card is just as likely as the NSA de-anonymizing your proxy (well probably less likely given what the NSA has been up to). However, for private databases nobody is going to make those efforts. But what they will do (and do all the time) is cross-reference web activity to minimize anonymity and increasing "targeting." Advertising is an inextricable part of the global economy. It would take a revolution to change that. That's circular. My point is that the industry's overwhelming movement toward advertising as a payment system starved out the development of alternative payment systems, micropayments, e-cash, etc. Hell, paypal could be so much more privacy preserving simply by not disclosing your email to the seller but they don't make that trivial effort because they have no competition. I think this is deeply wrong and I wouldn't be working for Google if I thought we were heading in this direction. If you think I am specifically talking about Google, you are mistaken. Go install Ghostery and watch how simply visiting a web page like The Verge gets you into the databases of at least 7 different trackers other than Google. If Mike Hearn was arguing that google should have a monopoly on advertising because google currently doesn't deliberately share its secret stash with anyone, then that opens up a whole different line of disagreement.