alt Hacker NewsYou should at least complain to your bank and government, support NGOs fighting for your freedom like https://edri.org, https:/eff.org, or equivalent in your country.
Forcing you to use foreign megacorps for essential services should be illegal if not already.
Replies
immibis • last Tuesday at 11:50 AM
It's not really that different from forcing you to use a national midicorp (a bank) to bank.
CBDCs solve this in theory, but the government would add the requirement back just for funsies.
Sure, I complain basically every week, but it's like moving a mountain. It was the government's idea, and they're very gung-ho on continuing with it. The official reason is fighting tax evasion, but the more probable one is that the ruling elite has major stakes in all major banks, so they're very interested in making everyone dependent on those banks.
The only realistic thing left for me is moaning about it on the ole 'net and hoping (probably in vain) that this disease doesn't spread further to other countries. Western democracies are already in the process of copying several bad ideas we implemented 10+ years ago (and China more than 20 years ago), I don't see a reason why this also wouldn't be ported over.
And the digital sovereignty argument doesn't really work, one of the banks uses its own payment system — mostly copied from Chinese AliPay — and it's the most popular one here. Zero dependence on "the West" other than the phones themselves, where they think they have an alternative in Huawei and friends, and you're gonna have to depend on someone in any case, even just for internet infrastructure, or even cash printing machines.