Fake Your Birthday When Creating New Online Accounts
Every time I sign up for a new website or service, I think to myself: How many places do I have my information in so far? I guess it won’t take me long to build a pretty good profile of me, given the data I’ve given out over the years to various organizations: my name, address (s), birthday, email address, phone number (s). , gender, etc.
In hindsight, I wish I was a dirty liar.
By that I mean there is no reason why you should provide any service with genuine details of your life – unless, say, you do not expect them to send you something, and you really want to receive it. For example, I don’t think Netflix really cares about your birthday if you’re over 18, so you can watch whatever you want.
Should you give your new favorite web forum your phone number? Probably not, unless that’s what they use for 2-Step Verification. (Even so, why not use a Google Voice number instead?) Does Baskin-Robbins really need your address? If you’re hoping for a coupon, of course, but I think they can handle it otherwise. Does everyone need to know your gender? It’s up to you, but you can probably access most of the services without giving up this information.
The point is, providing websites with fake information makes it much more difficult for someone to get your real data, which can then be used in an identity theft attack. That, or they might try to reset your password if the engine asks for multiple identifying pieces of information – such as your email address and date of birth – before prompting you for a new password.
Of course, the most difficult part of this method – remember what you used fictitious information, in case you have problems with the data. If possible, you can simply swap the month and date of birth, for example, but leave the year. You can use the relative’s birthday instead. Or you can use an old address, or even a relative’s address instead of your current one, as well as a Google Voice number, an email address that is forwarded to your real one, or any gender address you want.
If you are not Benjamin Button yourself, you can use any site or service with your fake information:
If you are worried about forgetting the details of your fake life, you can list all your details in the document. Store it offline, on your phone, in some encrypted cloud service (iCloud, Google Drive) or in your password manager. Don’t forget the fake you and don’t ignore it. Why give up information about yourself if this is not absolutely necessary?