Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama recently announced an ambitious plan: He wants to make Albania the world's first cashless society before the decade is out.
And what about privacy? Do people still have a right for anonymous payments, or if one needs to buy, for example, big dildo in a sex shop, both bank’s manager and the government should know about it? And besides jokes, do they really want to build a system with a full control of financial operations of citizens? Sounds like a step to the neo-GULAG for me (GULAG is a name of the system of opression camps that exiated in the former USSR). Especially in Albania, that is still quite far away from the top of democracy and freedom ratings.
Don’t worry, all your cash transactions are traced as well. Banks just record the serial numbers when you use the ATM and once again when the store returns the cash to the bank. Source(de)
Wow, wtf! I would not expect that degree of mass surveillance to be economically viable. And so overtly stark in the face of the GDPR. In principle, we should be able to make a GDPR access request to the central bank to ask them where we shop with cash and which ATMs we used.
Europeans are fucked as far as privacy goes. The GDPR is unenforced. But even if were enforced, the GDPR’s data minimisation (article 5) rule only obligates data controllers to consider options that are available.
We know from all the cashless bars in Amsterdam how naive and flippant consumers are about privacy. Creating a digital footprint of alcohol consumption is one of the most foolish things consumers can do, particularly in light of that Scandinavian guy who was denied a mortgage on the basis of his drinking habits, which were known to the bank by his purchase history.
Privacy aside, there is a human rights issue because banks treat different demographics of people differently. It’s disturbing how the human rights problem is so overlooked.
And what about privacy? Do people still have a right for anonymous payments, or if one needs to buy, for example, big dildo in a sex shop, both bank’s manager and the government should know about it? And besides jokes, do they really want to build a system with a full control of financial operations of citizens? Sounds like a step to the neo-GULAG for me (GULAG is a name of the system of opression camps that exiated in the former USSR). Especially in Albania, that is still quite far away from the top of democracy and freedom ratings.
Don’t worry, all your cash transactions are traced as well. Banks just record the serial numbers when you use the ATM and once again when the store returns the cash to the bank. Source(de)
Wow, wtf! I would not expect that degree of mass surveillance to be economically viable. And so overtly stark in the face of the GDPR. In principle, we should be able to make a GDPR access request to the central bank to ask them where we shop with cash and which ATMs we used.
Europeans are fucked as far as privacy goes. The GDPR is unenforced. But even if were enforced, the GDPR’s data minimisation (article 5) rule only obligates data controllers to consider options that are available.
We know from all the cashless bars in Amsterdam how naive and flippant consumers are about privacy. Creating a digital footprint of alcohol consumption is one of the most foolish things consumers can do, particularly in light of that Scandinavian guy who was denied a mortgage on the basis of his drinking habits, which were known to the bank by his purchase history.
Privacy aside, there is a human rights issue because banks treat different demographics of people differently. It’s disturbing how the human rights problem is so overlooked.
In any case, Albania cannot join the EU while being cashless unless Albania keeps their own currency.