a fake e-mail address made us unrecognizable to companies, and the cell phone helped us verify the information. google will send a one-time text message. >> this is to the pre-paid phone. >> reporter: in all we invested about $400 on equipment. but for that, companies had no way to associate our real lientities with what we were doing online. >> order confirmed-- yes! er reporter: it's like a super power, a cloak of invisibility. >> that is a super power, but it doesn't come free. >> reporter: or easy. >> or easy. basically when you want more security, it's more >>convenience. >> reporter: in our case we did s ave a digital trail, but it wasn't tied to us personally. of course, one slip-up, jeff, such as logging in with our real email address, and companies right away would know who did the shopping. w glor: amazing how much you have to pay for privacy. tony, thank you.