Moving from cash to credit cards, PayPal, etc. is an ongoing privacy disaster | Hacker News Reader

Moving from cash to credit cards, PayPal, etc. is an ongoing privacy disaster

grapheneos.social

42 pointsCider998615 comments

Banks censor everyone on both sides of the poltical spectrum without a court order for risk mitigation. There's a law that allow police getting banking records without a warrant, just a subpeona.

There's no downside to collecting too much information so banks ask for way more PII than needed and then it breaches, making more KYC fraud with the newly breached data, giving an excuse to continue collecting more information instead of making a secure system. Their apps are full of security theatre to comply with regulations.

On the topic of cash and crime–encrypted messengers and VPNs are also used for crime. Except, there's more crime in online banking than in cash. The war against cash is actually part of the war against privacy. We should not sacrifice privacy because of crime.

"consumers reported losing more money to scams where they paid with bank transfers or cryptocurrency than all other payment methods combined."

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/...

Or maybe it's a good thing? In The Curse of Cash, economist Kenneth Rogoff (of austerity fame, or infamy) argues against cash, particularly large denomination bank notes and crypto, as accessories to crime, corruption, and tax evasion, and I'm with him there. But also, btw, because you can't impose negative interest rates on cash (but on deposits!) - not sure what to think about that.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691172132/th...

That's part of why larger banknotes like the €500 euro were discontinued.

Oliver Bullough on Odd Lots podcast[0] talked about this issue recently (the large denominations). I guess he had a book "Everybody Loves Our Dollars" that went into this too.

I found the argument compelling but hopefully there's a balance to be struck at individual vs organizational scales.

[0]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etylJHe_p7Q

I've yet to find it much of a disaster. I used to mostly use cash but now most of the everyday stuff like coffee and supermarkets is electronic. I'm not sure what's disastrous? You can still use cash if you want to do something illegal or iffy.

Weed is legal in Canada. Last I checked, and it was certainly true when weed initially became legal in Canada, marijuana is still very illegal in the US, federally.

So your VISA, Mastercard, or debit-backed-by-a-US-reachable-bank records can show you've been purchasing what the US Customs officers see as a highly illegal drug, and you potentially lied about it the last time you said you didn't.

Depending on your ties to the States, like family, property, transiting across the border each day for work, or just an annual holiday, I would count that as a disaster.

But I'm sure the US would never... /s

https://old.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/9hhkxw/us_border_of...

I'd probably put buying drugs in the iffy category where cash is better.

> Moving from cash to credit cards, PayPal, etc. is an ongoing privacy disaster

Add the UK's new Click to Pay. To sign me up without my consent Barclays passed my email address to MasterCard to associate with a "digital profile".

why its been happening for 60 years

Graphene's latest cope from common banking apps not working on their OS anymore? I suppose that's one way to get ahead of the problem, pronounce them all to be a disaster and not worth using :)

We just shitting on one of the last bastions of hacker culture for mobile tech now then? When did HN get such a taste for the boot?

Calling a bunch of elitist pricks who happily shit on everything except their dearest Pixel, who stand in line for Google's Android patches like some kind of modern age Oliver Twist, a 'bastion of hacker culture' is a bit of a stretch to be fair.

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