You are describing the possible collection of circumstantial evidence, not systemic surveillance inherent to cash. Completely different thing than the transaction logs of electronic money transfers.
There is a reason why governments don't want large cash transactions. It enables illegal sales, tax evasion and money laundering. Dude/ette, if you think the police can track a single 20€ bill that precisely, they wouldn't have a problem seeing through 500k€ cash deals when drug money goes legit through real estate. Basically every restaurant and cafe on earth uses cash to do creative accounting.
However, of course, there are particular crimes where money tracking does matter. If you rob a bank or break into an ATM your cash prize comes with strings attached, as those known bills will get flagged. I think the most important implication would be these bills becoming actual evidence instead of an happenstance mysterious cash finding. If a bank scan finds them in circulation again, they may be able to narrow down your location, do statistics with mobile network data and so on, but it's not like every note is tracked by default at every endpoint.
Crime runs on cash. How often have you read about anyone getting caught on cash serials??
Why on earth would any commercial store invest in cash tracking? They only got one point of the cash flow, are you implying they are all connected in some grand conspiracy?? Such stores got an abundance of way more accessible and relevant customer data they could (super illegally) collect, like biometrics, RF device IDs, loyalty programs, ... I also never seen a self checkout store which accepted cash at all.
You are telling a fatalist narrative which only helps the abandonment of cash, especially for small, daily transactions, which matter most for privacy.
Sorry I missed this reply and hope you still see mine.
> You are telling a fatalist narrative which only helps the
abandonment of cash, especially for small, daily transactions, which
matter most for privacy.
I hope that's not true and this is the only point I dispute.
Yes cash can be tracked, down to a single note, but it's extremely
hard and expensive, as most of us here with a little more knowledge
understand. No big conspiracies, just a sobering appraisal of the
state of the art. What that knowledge does is debunk the political lie
that digital cash is the only way to fight crime and money laundering
etc.
Now, we were going to do a Cybershow episode on drug dealers who
accept Google and Apple pay, but shelved it because frankly I'm out of
my depth journalistically and can't protect sources or navigate the
risks of side effects. But it happens, and those companies collude
(because it must be bloody obvious from the data).
Meanwhile I think the front line is dispelling the "convenience myth".
Convenience is such a dirty and dishonest word that most-times stands
in for "something that makes me feel good". In reality I can pay cash
for a round of drinks and tip the barmaid before my mates have got
their phones out their pockets.
There is a reason why governments don't want large cash transactions. It enables illegal sales, tax evasion and money laundering. Dude/ette, if you think the police can track a single 20€ bill that precisely, they wouldn't have a problem seeing through 500k€ cash deals when drug money goes legit through real estate. Basically every restaurant and cafe on earth uses cash to do creative accounting.
However, of course, there are particular crimes where money tracking does matter. If you rob a bank or break into an ATM your cash prize comes with strings attached, as those known bills will get flagged. I think the most important implication would be these bills becoming actual evidence instead of an happenstance mysterious cash finding. If a bank scan finds them in circulation again, they may be able to narrow down your location, do statistics with mobile network data and so on, but it's not like every note is tracked by default at every endpoint.
Crime runs on cash. How often have you read about anyone getting caught on cash serials??
Why on earth would any commercial store invest in cash tracking? They only got one point of the cash flow, are you implying they are all connected in some grand conspiracy?? Such stores got an abundance of way more accessible and relevant customer data they could (super illegally) collect, like biometrics, RF device IDs, loyalty programs, ... I also never seen a self checkout store which accepted cash at all.
You are telling a fatalist narrative which only helps the abandonment of cash, especially for small, daily transactions, which matter most for privacy.
Crypto won't happen. Lol.