- you take out cash from an ATM. The machine is loaded with
sequential or logged order of SN that can be matched to withdrawals
and times.
- you take that cash immediately to a vending machine or supermarket
auto-checkout that takes notes. The machine scans all notes it
ingests and can match them to timings and purchase details.
- Even a small shop might have a camera at the till, along with a UV
light frequency used to check for forgeries.
Obviously as the time between withdrawal and re-appearing in a system
grows the strength of the association gets lower, as notes change
hands. But in a serious crime investigation that doesn't matter, it's
a good-enough capability to warrant chasing.
I haven't commented on the ATMs, I was only replying to the question, not the statement that preceded it.
I have owned a retail shop. There are plenty of rules and regulations to worry about, and labor is a massive expense. At no point would I have been inclined to purchase equipment or pay for labor to track serial numbers on bills without a specific mandate to do so. No such mandate exists.
You are describing the possible collection of circumstantial evidence, not systemic surveillance inherent to cash. Completely different thing than the transaction logs of electronic money transfers.
There is a reason why governments don't want large cash transactions. It enables illegal sales, tax evasion and money laundering. Dude/ette, if you think the police can track a single 20€ bill that precisely, they wouldn't have a problem seeing through 500k€ cash deals when drug money goes legit through real estate. Basically every restaurant and cafe on earth uses cash to do creative accounting.
However, of course, there are particular crimes where money tracking does matter. If you rob a bank or break into an ATM your cash prize comes with strings attached, as those known bills will get flagged. I think the most important implication would be these bills becoming actual evidence instead of an happenstance mysterious cash finding. If a bank scan finds them in circulation again, they may be able to narrow down your location, do statistics with mobile network data and so on, but it's not like every note is tracked by default at every endpoint.
Crime runs on cash. How often have you read about anyone getting caught on cash serials??
Why on earth would any commercial store invest in cash tracking? They only got one point of the cash flow, are you implying they are all connected in some grand conspiracy?? Such stores got an abundance of way more accessible and relevant customer data they could (super illegally) collect, like biometrics, RF device IDs, loyalty programs, ... I also never seen a self checkout store which accepted cash at all.
You are telling a fatalist narrative which only helps the abandonment of cash, especially for small, daily transactions, which matter most for privacy.
Sorry I missed this reply and hope you still see mine.
> You are telling a fatalist narrative which only helps the
abandonment of cash, especially for small, daily transactions, which
matter most for privacy.
I hope that's not true and this is the only point I dispute.
Yes cash can be tracked, down to a single note, but it's extremely
hard and expensive, as most of us here with a little more knowledge
understand. No big conspiracies, just a sobering appraisal of the
state of the art. What that knowledge does is debunk the political lie
that digital cash is the only way to fight crime and money laundering
etc.
Now, we were going to do a Cybershow episode on drug dealers who
accept Google and Apple pay, but shelved it because frankly I'm out of
my depth journalistically and can't protect sources or navigate the
risks of side effects. But it happens, and those companies collude
(because it must be bloody obvious from the data).
Meanwhile I think the front line is dispelling the "convenience myth".
Convenience is such a dirty and dishonest word that most-times stands
in for "something that makes me feel good". In reality I can pay cash
for a round of drinks and tip the barmaid before my mates have got
their phones out their pockets.
> - you take that cash immediately to a vending machine or supermarket auto-checkout that takes notes. The machine scans all notes it ingests and can match them to timings and purchase details.
I can tell you they don't do that, at least for the systems I know in Europe. And for manual systems obviously the cashier doesn't record serials and match them to transactions.
I'd love to hear more about what you know about the systems you've
examined or designed. PM me at cybershow.uk and we might do an episode
and bring in some other engineers too.
Specifically can you prove (or give compelling anecdotes why) the
linear CCD array used to determine the legitimacy of the note cannot,
on internet connected machines, retain and store that scan? I know
that's a tall order, because I'm asking a negative.
I haven't designed such a system and as you say I can't really prove anything, but the embedded software I worked on just didn't record anything like that. Of course one can always imagine a secret government firmware or whatever, it's just highly unlikely IMO.
The most obvious proof I'd say is that there is no law mandating this, so nobody is going to bother doing it just for fun.
How about money counting machines? Medium and bigger shops probably have those and if not they probably at least every few days bring cash to bank to deposit on their account.
Remember supposedly most printers were printing some semi invisible serial codes - for tracking whistleblowers and leaks.
Probably cannot easily prove that ATM or money counter machines manufactures are not doing something similar.
Is this true? When I buy something from my local gas station is there a system in place tracking every serial number exchanged on the cash?