"Money laundering" and "financial privacy" are NOT the same thing. #cybersecgirl #privacy #law
Lyn Alden's avatar Lyn Alden
Privacy is normal and good. There has been an effort among authorities to make “money laundering” and “financial privacy” the same thing. That is, the mere act of moving money privately itself becomes a crime. That’s not okay. Money laundering is when money that is obtained through crime is concealed by obfuscating it with clean money. The actual crime is the initial non-financial crime (say, mob stuff), and historically money laundering involves manual activity to work with the criminals. Now that open source tech can make certain transactions private, authorities increasingly equate all private money transfer with money laundering, even if the developer of the open source tech had no direct involvement with criminals. Authorities target them regardless, and sanction the technology itself. Financial privacy becomes synonymous with crime in their minds, and in the minds of the public.
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It is the same thing. Arguing otherwise is like saying that if criminals encrypt their messages it's called "message laundering" and if non-criminals do it, it's just message privacy... Money laundering is a made-up crime, much like wrongthink in 1984.
Wait until it’s a matter of national security. These bitcoin startups are going to crushed like a paper plane.
@sommerfeld. I am speaking to the law as it is, not as it should be. In the current US legal system, intent matters. The Fourth Amendment "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Shooting someone in self-defense is not the same as shooting with intent to murder the innocent. Probable cause is a requirement in the current legal system. Violating someone's right to privacy without probable cause is a legal violation of the Fourth Amendment. While the legal system may be flawed, with the government and big data often violating Fourth Amendment rights by accessing private data without a warrant, the law as it stands requires probable cause and that is often based on intent. We shouldn't HAVE to pay taxes, but tax avoidance is perfectly legal while tax evasion is very much not.