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How a Cashless Society Could Embolden Big Brother - The Atlantic

Sarah Jeong, writing in The Atlantic, raises the spectre of of surveillance in a cashless society. And she's right.

When money becomes information, it can inform on you.

From How a Cashless Society Could Embolden Big Brother - The Atlantic

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In June 2015, Thomas Dart, the sheriff of Cook County—the largest county in Illinois, which includes the city of Chicago—wrote an open letter to the major payment processors. “As the Sheriff of Cook County, a father and a caring citizen, I write to request that your institution immediately cease and desist from allowing your credit cards to be used to place ads on websites like Backpage.com.”

Visa and Mastercard immediately folded in the face of Dart’s letter, and stopped serving Backpage.

From How a Cashless Society Could Embolden Big Brother - The Atlantic

Now, whatever you think about the morality of prostitution, there's something troubling about this. You can blame Visa and MasterCard for spinelessly caving to a form a blackmail that circumvents legal due process by invoking social media mobs. That's the world we live in. But if the Sheriff Dart's of the world succeed, then payments will vanish underground and society will be vastly worse off.

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