Do we have a right to anonymous cash transactions?
I was listening to people talking on the radio about digital currency and the demise of cash. There seemed to be an implication that people wanting to retain cash were luddites in a similar category as climate change skeptics, anti-vaxxers, and old people. Digital currency is just going to push the old way out of existence, and you'd better just accept it. It got me thinking about the benefits of cash. One of which is the ability to make an anonymous transaction. You go into a take-away, pick a drink from the fridge, take it to the counter, and pay. No record anywhere that you just bought a drink. In the digital currency world, there could be any amount of data being collected about that same transaction. By comparison all the revelations by Edward Snowdon about government data collection may pale to insignificance. For example, the government might now know: where you were at a particular time and date what you jus...