Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

Post by o-o- » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:49 PM UTC

metildaa wrote: post #296

plufz wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atleast 99% of my payments in sweden are with a totally normal credit card, the rest with swish. I only use paper money to give to homeless people, can’t remember when I bought something with bills and coins. I think it’s great, I’m more worried about tax evasion than my government knowing what I buy. I’m more interested in my speech being free than my purchases, even though I can see the problem in non-functioning d…

Its not just the government that has this data, but every intermediary in the non-cash payment chain. Mastercard for example sells its payment data to Google, who uses it to correlate online ad viewing with in store purchases. There is no way to opt out of this if you use Mastercard, and other intermediaries do similar shady things with your data.

Post by XorNot » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:50 PM UTC

bouncycastle wrote: post #169

samontar wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s anti-fraud to stop someone from stealing your card and using it elsewhere. You can usually pre-empt that by informing the bank of travel.

Anti-fraud may been the reason on that day, but who knows what will be the reason tomorrow (eg Capital Controls as it happened in Greece). The main point is that I still had to get permission. It's kind of like when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to go outside the house unless I informed my parents, which was like getting permission implicitly. When using cash, you do not have to inform the bank anything.

Post by fs111 » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:51 PM UTC

samontar wrote: post #160

bouncycastle wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Want to share about my experience about the "permission" part. I once travelled to Beijing and had dinner in a fancy dumpling restaurant. When I went to pay the bill, my European bank instantly flagged the transaction and blocked my card from further use. I had no idea what happened until I called the bank later that evening (had to wait until they opened). So yeah, what you said happened to me - revoked instantly, s…

That’s anti-fraud to stop someone from stealing your card and using it elsewhere. You can usually pre-empt that by informing the bank of travel.

Post by exikyut » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:54 PM UTC

dunnevens wrote: post #314

dmitriy_ko wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That reminds me of Futurama episode where Bender finds a phone booth: "Now I don't need to carry my phone with me all the time!" Progress is sometimes a regress in disguise.

Reminds me of an old scifi story. Someone in a far future or advanced alien society runs across a paper book. "A means of conveying information without needing power and without the risk of surveillance? Excellent!" (paraphrased from memory).

Post by sizzle » Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 11:56 PM UTC

megaremote wrote: post #316

sizzle wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you run out of cash on hand or it gets lost or stolen....

No different to anything getting lost of stolen, and a bracelet is less likely to get lost or stolen.