This may not be the best question for this community, but I believe it should be open ended.
The reason I have been thinking about this question is because someone once said: “as soon as you turn 18, card companies will start sending you offers and advertisements”. How do they get that information? Is it through my bank or something else I naively signed up for?
I am a big “opsec” nut. I take steps to not give out my information. I do not give information to social media websites as I do not even have an account on most of them. I only just closed my only bank account I ever had. I do not have any subscriptions or services. And you can assume the rest.
I think this would be a good test to see what may have leaked to companies so far.
I don’t know many other ways I can ask the question. I just want to be prepared and be unknown.
Not exactly asking for advice, just what precautions everyone else has taken in their life. If I am asking in the wrong place, I hope I can get good redirection.
You will need a bank account to do pretty much anything in adult life. So, I would recommend opening an account at a local credit union. Credit unions are small and owned by their members, so they won’t sell your info to anyone or send you ads. There are many other pros to using a credit union instead of a large bank, but privacy is a big one.