{"id":49233,"date":"2024-06-12T01:39:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T06:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=49233"},"modified":"2024-06-20T01:40:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T06:40:13","slug":"your-privacy-is-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/your-privacy-is-under-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Privacy Is Under Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>As originally published exclusively in \u201cEscape Artist Insider Magazine \u2013 June 2023 edition\u201d.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cArguing that you don&#8217;t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don&#8217;t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Edward Snowden<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This month\u2019s theme is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYour Privacy Toolkit.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If privacy is important to you\u2026 and it ought to be\u2026 you need to be prepared for the fight of your life. And not having anything to hide is no reason to be silent on this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t know about you, but daily my inbox is filled with warnings about the imminent launch of a new Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) here in the United States. Apparently, this will be the end of dollar bills and the start of a cashless society here in the U.S.A.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While I do not believe the United States is anywhere even close to launching a new CBDC, I am very concerned that this is the direction we are heading. I am also very concerned that people\u2014wherever CBDC\u2019s are being considered\u2014will be sold on the benefits while the negatives are either underplayed or not even mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two years ago, I was interviewed by Michelle Makori at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kitco News<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Michelle asked me then what I thought about CBDCs. My answer was very clear\u2026 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think Central Bank Digital Currencies were concocted in hell by Satan himself.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>CLICKABLE SCREENSHOT OF KITCO INTERVIEW HERE<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You will see I was not a fan then, and I am still not a fan today. Please stick with me as I dig a little deeper into CBDCs and offer you some thoughts on some key privacy tools for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Privacy Toolkit<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a CBDC world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>TOUTED BENEFITS OF CBDCS<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without fail, proponents of CBDCs point to two major benefits of centralized digital currencies. They say it will make it much easier to send and receive funds. They also claim those who are currently unbanked will now be included in the financial system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adoption advocates make the case that we will be able to make payments much more quickly and efficiently. Further, we will be able to be paid much more quickly and efficiently. For instance, tax refunds and tax payments can be virtually instantaneous. Stimulus checks and other various payments would flow more dependably and rapidly\u2014disability, social security, subsistence payments, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who doesn\u2019t want to get paid quickly?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other major benefit is financial inclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not everyone has a bank account. Poor people typically do not. Unless they can travel to you to make payment or make a payment to you through a third-party transfer agent, they cannot work with you currently. And this goes for domestic as well as internationally unbanked people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, with CBDCs they have access\u2026 assuming they have a smart phone or a computer and access to their accounts on-line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, CBDCs bring the promise of instantaneous gratification and inclusion for all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So\u2026 what\u2019s not to love?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FEDCOIN<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glad you asked. Quite simply, everything\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If adopted, Central Bank Digital Currencies will be the end of financial privacy as we know it. Think about it. Every single penny you spend or receive will be known to the government as it is being debited or credited.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting back to the opening quote from Edward Snowden, it doesn\u2019t matter if you have anything to hide or not. The potential for abuse by other human beings or governments is unlimited. For instance, let\u2019s say you went on a pleasure trip in your automobile which is powered by dinosaur juice. And let\u2019s say that caused you to exceed the amount of gasoline the powers that be thought you should expend monthly in the interests of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You could be shut off from further gasoline purchases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, all your finances would be controlled by the federal government. Getting paid can be turned on or off at a whim. Payments? No problem. They can be taken from your account whether you know it or not\u2026 and whether you like it or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine having your assets frozen due to the suspicion of guilt. One scenario comes to mind. Imagine you drive through an intersection and the light is changing from green to yellow to red. Consider the \u201cred-light\u201d camera isn\u2019t properly calibrated, and you are captured in a photograph as a red-light violator. With a CBDC in place, the fines can immediately be withdrawn from your account\u2026 even though you had already authorized the funds to pay your mortgage payment instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are more potential issues as well. The impact on monetary policy is unknown. Potential negative impact to the banking system is unknown. The potential for capital controls is elevated significantly in a CBDC world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But\u2026 to me\u2026 all of that is secondary to the loss of all financial privacy and the total control of our finances by the government.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>WHAT IF SATAN\u2019S CONCOCTION IS ADOPTED?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If CBDCs come to pass, I expect that to trigger black markets and a new form of cash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anytime traditional markets failed anywhere in this world, black markets have emerged to fill the void. I see that happening if currency markets fail us through the adoption of CBDCs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my opinion, the most obvious candidate to fill the currency void would be Bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given my belief that humans will always seek to have some sort of financial privacy element, the elimination of dollar bills and other bank notes from society will not eliminate cash. Rather, I see gold and silver stepping in to fill the void of cash in a cashless society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is nothing more desirable or trusted to fill such a void.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you haven\u2019t already, establish a wallet, hold some Bitcoin, and buy some gold and silver. As you do so, I leave you with a comforting thought from George Orwell\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1984<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHe thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head, you could still outwit them. With all their cleverness, they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was thinking.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good investing\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As originally published exclusively in \u201cEscape Artist Insider Magazine \u2013 June 2023 edition\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cArguing that you don&#8217;t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don&#8217;t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.\u201d Edward Snowden This month\u2019s theme is \u201cYour Privacy Toolkit.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":49234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9408],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[2274,40482,40481,40488,11893,40487,36332,3037,40480,40479,10724,40486,40485,40484,7177,1920,3163,38651,40483,1804],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/post.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49235,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49233\/revisions\/49235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49233"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=49233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}