Everyone's situation is different I suppose. But I do tire when people choose the convenience over the freedom.
Not saying that's what you're doing, but I hear it often enough.
Not saying that's what you're doing, but I hear it often enough.
I bought mobile devices that I could root over the ones that I couldn't. I favor companies that are less shitty. I preferred Linux over Windows as main OS even when Linux was harder to use (now I think in fact might be easier). But life is made of trade-offs and I did not see particularly good arguments of why Android is "that bad". You can root some devices and one can even avoid lots of services if you don't like Google (maps, mail, etc.) - which I also do.
So for me Android manages to stay in a unstable equilibrium : good for what I need, trustful enough for some stuff (money), not more spying that others (GSM towers), some levels of customization if you really want. Could it go "evil"? Sure, but considering what happens in the world, I am more worried my neighbors would have idiotic ideas than the fact that Google will be so evil.
You stopped using cash? It is one of the most insane things I ever heard.
You transactions are tracked, I assume? The rule in the eu (PSD2) is that a dozen private/public/hybrid/other databases, of unclear substantial identity, will record your transactions.
And what if you had a an infrastructural shortage? No transactions then?
How can people think of "cashless society" as something outside a dystopia?
Some didn't before 2020, but during 2020 the trend accelerated, and many shops stopped taking cash. Aside from hygiene, it's also easier to deal with safety for the store (i.e.: nobody can steal the cash register).
The supermarket in my neighbourhood has ~30 self-checkout machines. Only one of them takes cash. The human-checkout also takes cash, but is usually closed.
There is a possibility that such practice violates EU legislation in the terms of "paper" Euro being legal tender on the territory.
That is in fact a highly naïve, direly naïve society: (*) the data is not contained into national boundaries by law already, and (*) you cannot know what will happen to the country and society in n years time.
That's why I don't mind carrying around plastic cards, they just go in my wallet with my ID and a small amount of cash anyway.
Even if I was willing to use GPay, I don't like the possibility of my phone dying locking me out of my apartment and preventing me from paying for things.
Moving to GrapheneOS and not having virtual cards for contactless payment has been struggle, not going go lie.
In the UK we have Curve and, I believe, plenty of European banks have apps that work natively too.
> Preparedness is having several thousand euros in cash.
totally agree. not that I, much like any average Ukrainian, have more than €400 behind my name, but I agree, and by that definition only the wealthiest ~10% are truly prepared