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.

  • doc@fedia.io
    0·
    7 days ago

    The Federal Reserve, which manages interbank money transfers in the US, last year approved a service that creates near instant transfers for pennies.

    We have three official ways: wires (same day; acceptable for lawful purposes ie real estate; costly at $20+ each), ACH (takes days; fractions of a penny; used for bulk transfers that are planned in advance or are not time sensitive ie checks and payroll; what venmo etc actually do in the background, behind the facade of their app), and now FedNow.

    FedNow is more like bank transfers used in other countries where silly stuff like venmo isn’t needed. Problem is every bank needs to spend the time and expense to implement it. That is going to take ages, and with venmo-like services being well established there isn’t a lot of demand driving adoption. And probably why anyone reading this never heard about it.