Banks censor everyone on both sides of the poltical spectrum without a court order for risk mitigation. There's a law that allow police getting banking records without a warrant, just a subpeona.

There's no downside to collecting too much information so banks ask for way more PII than needed and then it breaches, making more KYC fraud with the newly breached data, giving an excuse to continue collecting more information instead of making a secure system. Their apps are full of security theatre to comply with regulations.

On the topic of cash and crime–encrypted messengers and VPNs are also used for crime. Except, there's more crime in online banking than in cash. The war against cash is actually part of the war against privacy. We should not sacrifice privacy because of crime.

"consumers reported losing more money to scams where they paid with bank transfers or cryptocurrency than all other payment methods combined."

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/...

Or maybe it's a good thing? In The Curse of Cash, economist Kenneth Rogoff (of austerity fame, or infamy) argues against cash, particularly large denomination bank notes and crypto, as accessories to crime, corruption, and tax evasion, and I'm with him there. But also, btw, because you can't impose negative interest rates on cash (but on deposits!) - not sure what to think about that.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691172132/th...

I've yet to find it much of a disaster. I used to mostly use cash but now most of the everyday stuff like coffee and supermarkets is electronic. I'm not sure what's disastrous? You can still use cash if you want to do something illegal or iffy.

> Moving from cash to credit cards, PayPal, etc. is an ongoing privacy disaster

Add the UK's new Click to Pay. To sign me up without my consent Barclays passed my email address to MasterCard to associate with a "digital profile".