I know they’re all bad for privacy to an extent, which is why I specified “least bad.”
This is for casual use, as someone concerned about surveillance capitalism, digital privacy, social cooling and the like. I do not have a high threat model. I am looking to balance privacy and convenience. I am not going to teach my grandma how to use monero, and it isn’t always a reasonable option to use cash or mail a check.
The big services in the US I know of are:
- PayPal: shares your data with 600+ companies
- Venmo: owned by PayPal
- Apple Cash: Requires an Apple device, not an option for many
- Google Pay: it’s Google, and it doesn’t work on custom ROMs like GrapheneOS
- Facebook Messenger: apparently you can send money on there, but I think “there’s zero chance I’m making a Facebook account and I’m especially not linking my bank to it” needs no explanation in this community
- Cash App: owned by Square, might be a decent option?
- Zelle: Not supported by all banks (I don’t think it’s supported by mine and I definitely have friends that use unsupported banks)
If anyone knows of better options, or tips to minimize shared data while using any of the above options, please elaborate.
I am not going to teach my grandma how to use monero, and it isn’t always a reasonable option to use cash or mail a check.
If they and you both have a bank account, you can use ACH. Their bank knows about the transfer and your bank knows about the transfer.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/ach-transfers
I don’t know if that’s acceptable to you from a privacy standpoint. It’s obviously going to be less-private than cash — though some information does leak via serial number scanning at ATMs with cash — but if cash won’t work for your particular use case…shrugs
Monero? I know crypto is overhyped and typically seen as “bad” but its entire purpose was to operate outside the banking systems of the world.
