Quoted from VacFink:

I'm convinced...this is some shady business and knowledge. For all of the effort presumably to protect your privacy and from prying eyes from illicit activities? Isn't this a family friendly website? I imagine all of that searching to find that detail left its own trail, and like ants following a path to food, came from a lot of other users along that process deigned to support a much wider and more sinister intent, making the Subway card perhaps unintended but never-the-less ironic touch. If I had to guess it's source is as much a codeword as it is an example for others to use. If you didn't consider it at the time, maybe one should consider it now. Super creepy and out of place here IMO.
Paying to steal content is wrong enough you sought an insanely elaborate plan to protect yourself from its liabilities treading in a path worn smooth by some very dark and ill intended predecessors. Wow.
I won't go into detail about what parts of your plan did little to actually hide your activity from prying eyes because it only helps others who do the same. If your innocent and naive to this, consider that what your doing is only marginally different and to what effect?

Quoted from VacFink:

The part where its used to do something illegal or immoral.

Not sure what that has to do with any of this. We live in the same world. Cash is legal tender. It depends on what you spend it on. Same as the response above.

It makes you hard to find, but not invisible.

Quoted from VacFink:

Right here. In this quote.
You asked a question. I answered. I was, remember, responding to vanilla's elaborately constructed post on how he steals media content using a subway card and the library. The fact he uses a VPN is immaterial to the point. The point I was hoping to make, that you may have missed or not feel is as important, is that the effort mirrors the effort and is built upon a process that supports a number of illegal activities. I don't think that's appropriate at all, let alone for Pinside.
I don't have any problems with VPN or internet privacy. I didn't say I did, but maybe you think I did?

If you wear gloves, a ski mask, and drive up in an unmarked car in the black of night, still not true.

Do you intend conflate internet privacy with untraceable actions? They can be associated but aren't conditional to either part. Have all the privacy you want. For those that do legitimately for what ever reason, more power too them.

Quoted from VacFink:

They aren't using that process to buy groceries or donate to charity. I won't argue that it can't be used legitimately, but can argue that it largely isn't. Every swamp has clean water running in and out. But in the middle, its swamp.

Me personally, agree. I think your meaning to imply its an untraceable action. I think our concepts of untraceable are different. There are a lot of people in prison today who conducted their illicit activities in cash. I'm not sure it served them as well as they thought at the time.