This ignores the aspect of consumer data. Credit issuers generate profit through issuing rewards programs in part due to the sale of their customer’s behavioral spending data. Cash and debit users largely retain their data privacy here.
It’s hard to put a real world number on what the cost to the consumer is for losing this data ownership, but it is not zero: these data are increasingly used for targeted pricing practices which extort additional margins from the consumer at a later date.
I think one factor missing in such discussions is that consumer data can be used for political means
And I don't mean "politicians can use it" - but instead, as corporations are more and more involved in the politics, you get targetted and directed based on their needs
Do you have evidence to support your claim of targeted pricing practices? In what areas?
I don’t think the credit/debit privacy split you’re imagining works like you think.
Is't the fact that data is valuable for somebody, does not mean that it has a cost (price) for me? Spending data is definitely valuable for seller / corporation to know what to produce. I, on the other hand, cannot get money by saving information.
It's not zero sum game, that either I have it or seller have value out of it. Just like with garbage - for me old broken furniture might be a garbage, while for other it's a burning fuel.