Most people use debit cards most of the time in the British Isles I would say. Think it was the air show when I gave the RAF charity guy a note that I last paid cash. 

Chip and pin of course, but most of us just use the contactless system and tap our cards on the machine. Initially it was payments just up to 30 quid, but now its right up to 100. Many use Apple Pay of course and tap their phone on the machine.

There's one place here I can think of that only takes cards, no cash. Not sure how many more. 

During the pandemic not using cash was encouraged.

Edited November 29, 20223 yr by martin-w

1 hour ago, W2DR said:

The cyber world is, indeed, a scary place.

It's the future several science fiction writers have been writing about for years.  It's all about control.  

Noel

Edited November 29, 20223 yr by birdguy

Data is gold. If you have enough data, you can predict just about everything.
Europe's privacy laws make US laws look like a child's sand box.

Back in 2020 one of Europe's most secure browsers was sold to a private equity firm in the states with the assurance that it would remain private. Until some researcher uncovered this...

It is “a pre-targeting platform that identifies and unlocks consumer intent across channels including social, native, email, search, market research and lead generation rather than relying solely on what consumers enter into search boxes.”

Note the term 'consumer intent'. If I recall, there were two guys in Santa Monica that had developed and algorithm called 'latent intent'. Given enough raw data on someone, they could predict with a high degree of accuracy just about anything about you; what you are going to buy, where you will vacation, the next car brand you will buy, when your wife was likely to get pregnant, etc. Private investors lined up.

Yes, I know you cannot stop this, but you can slow it way down. The link below will help those who are unaware if the insideous collection and sale of your private information.

https://restoreprivacy.com/