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@ GHOSTn2H
2024-09-25 23:36:29FINANCIAL PRIVACY: Card Transactions, Cash, Monero, Sending Bitcoin Privately
Privacy is foundational for protecting freedom. Abuses to human rights and efforts to control people often depend on governments knowing details of a person’s life, this is why financial privacy is so important. Financial activity reveals details about a person’s relationships, profession, religion, political beliefs, geo location, and lots more.
Much has been said about data privacy concerns around social media, but financial data is also detrimental when abused or in the hands of the wrong persons.
A Person can speak about their humble life in a small town but their Financial data from the banks would reveal that they are actually a Billionaire.
Financial data reveals many areas of a person’s life, so it’s more likely to reveal who someone truly is, even if an individual does not want those details revealed to others.
From where you travel to, what you donate to, financial activity can paint a detailed picture of a person’s life, ensuring financial privacy means being able to have control over who gets to see that picture and purposes. You may not have something to hide but remember privacy is really about having control over your life.
Governments around the World Use Financial data to control people and activities within its jurisdiction. This is where financial privacy can act as a limit on governmental power. Where a lack of privacy is likely to lead to an abuse of that power.
Government policy on financial privacy is complex and often demands access to personal data for law enforcement and National Security purposes. Although often we see governments use that same financial data to hunt and halt activities that do not align with the policies of its agenda.
We believe any access at all should be reasonable and in accordance with privacy and human rights.
Almost all financial institution privacy standards prohibit the disclosure of client information to third parties without consent or an accepted criminal complaint, it is a conditional agreement because it has some limitations; this limitation or restriction in most cases is not clearly explained to clients but it is an ambiguous statement that further explains the limits of the financial institution, meaning the Central Bank which controls a country’s entire financial activities of all Financial institutions in a country does have the power to access all financial data as it demands, thereby limiting privacy.
CARD TRANSACIONS
Data Security and privacy are crucial in payment transactions in the digital era, protecting personal and financial information not only stops unlawful access but also increases customer trust and confidence.
Card transactions comes with a lot of risk and dangers such as Identity theft, cyber criminals use stolen data from digital payment platforms to impersonate individuals and access their financial accounts, make unauthorized purchases, or setup new accounts in order to illegally transfer funds or perform fraudulent financial transactions without owners consent.
Identity theft can have lasting effects on a victim’s financial health and credit status. Additionally phishing attacks are prevalent. Hackers use this technique to deceive users into providing their personal and payment information (Data) under the guise of legitimate request.
It is advisable for cards that you choose to carry around on your person be held in a RFID blocking wallet. Beyond physical security any cards that you use online or in stores should have spending limits and have no access to large amounts of funds you may have to prevent or limit the impact of fraud. For privacy protections consider virtual privacy cards or reloadable debit cards.
Lastly, do not use PayPal. They are a privacy nightmare and there is an entire cottage industry on the dark web selling stolen accounts.
CASH TRANSACTIONS
Cash is king. For a long time cash has been used as the primary form of payment and cash transactions have excellent privacy properties and it is widely accepted in most countries.
Cash transactions provides a high degree of privacy in payments, it also slows the growing information asymmetry between consumers and companies as well as between citizens and public authorities.
Bank notes and coins reduce your digital footprints compared to an electronic payment. Cash remains one of the most effective tools for financial privacy in a world increasingly dominated by digital payments. It offers true anonymity, leaving no digital trail or record of the transaction, making it impossible for third parties—such as governments, corporations, or hackers—to track your spending habits. Unlike card payments or online transfers, cash transactions don't reveal your identity, location, or spending patterns, providing a level of confidentiality that digital methods simply cannot match.
Physical cash works without registers of cash holders and transaction, when paying with bank notes and coins, it is only the buyer and seller who are aware of this: What is bought, how much, when, when by whom and at what.
While cash has its limitations in today’s digital society, it remains a valuable option for those who prioritize privacy. By using cash whenever possible, especially for sensitive or personal purchases, The use of cash gives room for maintenance and control over your financial data, it also help protect from unwanted surveillance, and safeguard your financial autonomy. Ultimately, cash is still king when it comes to preserving your financial privacy.
MONERO (XMR)
Monero is a decentralized cryptocurrency designed with a strong emphasis on privacy, security, stealth address and unlinkability, it is abbreviated XMR.
Monero’s transactions are completely anonymous and confidential by default making it one of the most privacy centric digital currencies available today.
Key features of Monero
·Untraceable Transactions: Monero uses advanced cryptographic techniques, such as Ring Signatures, which combine your transaction with others, making it impossible to identify the actual sender. This feature ensures that transactions cannot be traced back to any single individual.
·StealthAddresses: When you send Monero, the recipient’s address is never publicly recorded on the blockchain. Instead, a one-time address is generated for each transaction, ensuring the recipient's identity remains private.
·ConfidentialTransactions: Monero employs Ring Confidential Transactions (Ring CT) to hide the amount of XMR being transferred. This means the transaction amounts are kept entirely private, further enhancing confidentiality.
·Fungibility: Because Monero transactions are private, every XMR coin is indistinguishable from another. This makes Monero a truly fungible currency, meaning no coin carries a traceable history or stigma, unlike Bitcoin, where some coins can be "tainted" based on their transaction history.
Despite Monero’s popularity as a primary focused cryptocurrency, Monero faces criticism and challenges. The Monero community development team frequently updates the protocol to improve privacy and resist surveillance attempts, this is beneficial for security, meaning users and miners must regularly update software, this can be inconvenient and lead to potential forks if consensus is not reached within the community.
Many governments and financial institutions view Monero as a threat because of its untraceable nature, as a result this has posed some challenges making exchanges to delisted Monero in order to comply with anti-money laundering and know your customer (KYC) regulations.
SENDING BITCOIN PRIVATELY:
Bitcoin is often perceived as an anonymous payment network but in reality Bitcoin is the most transparent payment network in the world. At the same time, Bitcoin can provide acceptable levels of privacy when used correctly. All bitcoin transactions are public, traceable and permanently stored on the Bitcoin network, Bitcoin addresses are the only information used to define its allocations and history.
In ensuring privacy while Bitcoin transactions are performed it is advisable to generate a new address each time a payment is received. The incomplete privacy on transactions will lead to the Fungibility of the scripts, which could affect the stability of Bitcoin as a long-lived currency system, Bitcoin system addresses privacy by hiding the address of transactions via hash functions but the hash value is obviously unique, If the addresses and traders are bounded unconsciously through activities by attackers, the anonymity of the entire system will disappear.
Suppose that the Bitcoin system is connected to the payment of an e-commerce platform, the strong computing power can search the complete data of your incomes and outcomes, which makes everything about money exposed to the public.
Let’s say; You are paid salary via bitcoins and you spend those coins in the supermarket, the plaintext of the account of your income and outcome will inevitably be utilized by businesses to access the benefits like charge you higher prices or target you with advertisement.