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.
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
Doesn’t bank account information have to be exchanged for an ACH transfer? Seems good between people you really trust (although definitely less convenient), but I’m not sure I’d be comfortable exchanging bank info with an acquaintance.