You can use any bank account you’d like with Privacy.com, including connecting via debit card. However, the goal here is to protect your privacy and your money, so we recommend that you use a strategy of compartmentalization with your bank accounts and online access to them. Compartmentalizing your bank accounts, even within one financial institution (more institutions can be better), can protect your from having all of your money stolen should an account or linked account be compromised. With this strategy, you may have a checking account that is intended for purchases and/or moving money outside of your financial institution, including with Privacy.com. You may then have one or more savings accounts for different types of savings or savings goals. Money should never leave your savings account(s) except when you move it into the checking account(s) you use for purchases or otherwise use to move money outside of your financial institution. We recommend that you set up email and/or text message alerts to monitor conditions on your bank accounts, particularly in regards to transactions regarding your savings accounts and money moving out of them.
On Privacy.com, you have the option of connecting your bank accounts via a service called Plaid, and if you choose to do so through that method, we recommend sharing only the minimally necessary information regarding accounts you specifically wish to use with Privacy.com. For example, if you have three checking accounts and two savings accounts in the bank you’re linking through Plaid and only intend to use one checking account with Privacy.com, we recommend that you select only that account and not the others. In some cases, there are options to share bank statements or tax documents, to which we recommend not sharing as well. Generally speaking, we only want to share the absolute minimum amount of information needed to accomplish the goal.