Well it's starting to feel like data privacy just doesn't exist anymore. I don't know why administrators for big customer databases even bother setting passwords these days.
My concern was the complete opposite - I assume that my social security number and address are already for sale for a fraction of a cent somewhere, bundled with 10,000 other identities. But if money gets stolen, that's a whole rigamarole, with banks wringing their hands and saying "identity theft" as if that clears them from any responsibility.
Bank: "No, you see it was your identity that they stole!"
Customer: "Well I don't know because I seem to have my identity whereas you seem to have lost several thousands of dollars. I'm not clear why you think it's my identity that was stolen rather than your money."
When I need a legitimate large withdrawal, I can go through the required effort.
Most businesses don’t even accept cash anymore. Can’t get “hacked” although it’s prone to many other issues — space, humidity, physical theft.
For example, let's say you have $100k in savings. I think you would be absolutely bonkers to store that in some secret part of your (flammable! break-in-able!) house.
I guess you could put it in a safety deposit box, and if you needed to spend it in a non-cash way, you could walk it directly to the teller and deposit it and make it available? The equivalent of a cold wallet, I suppose.
Really? I've been using cash almost exclusively for the past several months and haven't had any real problems. Sure, the overpriced hipster vegan Thai place in the McMall district may not take cash, but the family-owned ramen restaurant a couple miles down the road is more than happy to do so. Personally I find the "won't take cash" attribute to be a strong indicator that the business isn't worth supporting.
(Nothing against Abu Dabi— I just picked a random place not under US jurisdiction where plenty of people have Escalade Platinum money.)