Privacy Co-ops and You

===Privacy Co-ops and You===

Non-profit and free for redistribution
Written on April 1st | 2018
Published on May 3rd | 2018

For entertainment and research purposes only
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DISCLAIMER
The Paranoid's Bible and its writers hold no responsibility for the acts of others.

The Paranoid’s Bible is for research and entertainment purposes only.

Please visit our blog for more PDFs and information: http://www.paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/
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===Preface===
Some of you may be familiar with some parts of this guide, while others are not. This is mostly due to the fact that a certain ex cult member has joined our ranks and will be sharing their information and experiences with us (you may know of their blog already). So please take the time to read this guide if you’re interested in purchasing goods online or using things like membership cards.

This guide will be applying certain tactics from several real world groups so that we may be able to condense and lessen our overall exposure if we’re willing to work with friends and/or family who share similar views and opinions, or simply  wish for a cheaper alternative.
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===What is a Privacy Co-op? ===
Community Building, also known as a privacy co-op, is where a group of 5 to 10 (or more) people get together to share money, resources and information to further reduce their information footprint and to help each other create garbage data and static to pollute whatever data is collected on them. This is usually done through sacrifices (creation and ownership of memberships or accounts, like Amazon prime). Each member makes one to two sacrifices, depending on the needs of the community, and then works together to share within these sacrifices.

We'll be somewhat vague in this guide. This is mostly due to the fact that each group is unique in needs and wants, ergo this guide is done loosely to provide wiggle room for those who read and use it.

Consider this more of a suggestion than a complete guide.
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===Creating a Community===
The easiest step is always the first, which is why creating a community  is something many people who're privacy conscious should look into. This should be done however with only trusted friends and family that either share the same beliefs (in privacy) as you or are able to keep things quiet. Many places are trying impede an individual's freedom by restricting access to the core purchaser instead of allowing sharing/helping.

As an example, let’s say in your little co-op you were picked as making the sacrifice for purchasing a membership in your name. While everyone contributes to the monthly or yearly fee, it's ultimately your name and consumer profile that that membership is associated with regardless of purchases made. However, because of these purchases, your consumer profile is more or less corrupted due to the fact that you've many people giving you the money to cover their purchases besides your own.


This is why, when creating a community/privacy co-op, that you should treat every purchase as your own when classed as the owner of an account or membership. This way no-one can try and claim you as using your account or membership as a fraudulent act. A scenario to demonstrate this could be if you were to go to someplace like CostCo and buy a bulk pack of something like baby food. They have various tier memberships which grant you certain privileges and advantages, which means potentially lesser prices or so much of a percentage off, ergo cheaper price in the long run on the baby food. So if someone for whatever reason asks why you’re buying so much, and you don’t have your own child, you simply state you’re hosting a relative at your home for awhile and wanted to make sure their child, your niece or nephew, have stuff to eat.

So, to summarize:  Many people mediating through a single individual in order to share the cost and purchase of goods without putting their own information and privacy at risk. The person who is in charge of the membership or account has less of a risk due to so many people going through them to purchase goods and services. This corrupts the consumer profile and pollutes it with garbage data.
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===Democracy in the CO-OP===
When it comes to a community/privacy co-op the best way to go about it is to figure out what assets each individual has and what is needed. If someone already has Amazon Prime, then designating them as the keeper of AP makes sense, however if an EBAY account is needed and no-one has one then someone will have to create an account and PayPal to use Ebay. This is where discussion is needed as everyone has different needs and wants.

Grocery shopping can be done quite easily through warehouses like Costco, GFS and Sam's Club, whereas clothes and technology will be a little more difficult. You'll also want to figure out how much you want to take advantage of when it comes to accounts and memberships. Some places offer credit cards that'll stock on extra percentages off whereas just the membership itself won't. Then you'll have rewards/awards that are locked to a specific time, date and person only.

While we're ultimately going to end up repeating here, discussion is important. Needs over wants; how much each member can contribute to accounts or membership fees; when shopping trips should be done; if bulk purchases are in everyone's favor... etc ...etc

If each member pulls their own weight and helps to contribute to the co-op, and with some well planned coordination, an individual can purchase an entire wardrobe for next-to-nothing. If each member works together on shopping trips, and does a bit of shopping around (for cheaper prices), everyone can ultimately stock up on necessities through bulk purchases and taking advantage of deal in various stores.
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===War Games===
The first order of business, obviously, is to figure out how far out your group and you are willing to go when doing physical purchases (as in do you go 50 miles VS 10 miles because price differences).

The second order of business is figuring out how much gas and maintenance you're willing to chip in for when travelling and transporting these physical purchases and if you're wasting more to get better deals due to traveling or not (Tip: Sign up for gas station memberships to earn your some money back).

Third, you must figure out some form of rotation of which members go during these shopping trips.

Fourth, weekly VS monthly lists. Weekly lists would include things like day-to-day items, needed toiletries and similar items. Monthly to yearly would be considered "stockables" like paper goods (toilet paper, paper towels...etc), cleaners and similar items.

Fifth, bulk purchases of what and when. If you can purchase items in bulk and divide them accordingly, you should be able to time these purchases by a month to every six or so months.

Sixth, necessities VS frivolities. Candy is a nice treat but ultimately not needed.  Fresh fruits, veggies, instant meals, canned goods...etc are necessities, not candy, gum or other similar items. Planning accordingly to the needs of the members VS the wants cannot only save money and time but lead to money being saved at the end.

Seventh, change and leftover money should be devoted to being put back into shopping trips or toward a goal, like a trip or holiday fund for the group (or put aside for "Unplanned deals" (E.G: Toilet paper on the cheap) ).

Eighth, cash and gift cards should be focused on as the main option for payment VS checks and credit or debit. This leaves less chance of purchase tracking but also lessens chances of identity theft.

Ninth, payment plans have to be done accordingly. If you opt-in for a credit card then you need to analyze and reanalyze every minute detail you can about it. Interest rates; cash back; rewards...etc If you're using a credit/charge card to rack up points and percentages off, then open up a savings accounts and place the amount owed on each purchase in there. If you charge 30, put 30 in the savings. When the bill comes in the mail, take the amount owed out of there and pay off the bill as quickly as possible. You build up credit, keep out of any debt and earn rewards.

Tenth, don’t be afraid of taxes. It’s inevitable that you’ll have to pay taxes sooner than later on some items, especially if you use a savings account and opt-in for a credit card. Figure this out beforehand. Talk to members, figure out who owns what in whose name. Set aside so much for taxes at the end of the year, or simply chip in when they’re being filed. Either way, depending on how or what you do… you’ll need to pay your taxes.
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===Afterword===
The above is just a sampling of what a community/privacy co-op could do, however we just covered the barest of basics. If you’re interested in doing more than the above, like purchasing property and vehicles, you’ll have to start looking into getting attorneys and discussing your area’s laws besides things like trusts and co-ownerships.

All in all, just doing the above would help reduce your consumer’s profile while screwing with the data provided to various agencies. Anything else is either just a happy accident or you found something that works for you. Either way, we can't go into more details without forcing you into a box which isn't what you want.