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<\/a><\/p>\nI went to a counter-serve restaurant recently, and when the time came to pay for my order, took out my wallet, presented a $20 bill, and was told, \u201cSorry, we don\u2019t accept cash.\u201d I was flabbergasted. What happened to \u201clegal tender for all debts public and private,\u201d as it says right there on the bill?<\/span><\/p>\n This has now happened to me at three separate establishments in recent months. The rise of cashless establishments is happening amid continuing hype over the supposed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> dawn of a \u201ccashless future\u201d and agitation by some very powerful interests that would love to see cash disappear. The credit card companies love it<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, naturally, and tech industry associations<\/strong><\/span><\/a> have also pushed for the concept.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, a backlash has prompted several cities and states including San Francisco<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Philadelphia<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and New Jersey<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>to ban cashless stores (they\u2019ve also been banned in Massachusetts since 1978). One salad chain, Sweetgreen, reversed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> its decision to go cashless amid criticism, and Amazon, which had reportedly been opposing<\/a><\/strong><\/span> legislative bans, has since announced<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that it will accept cash at its automated, cashier-less convenience stores<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. (As for the \u201clegal tender\u201d statement, that does not actually mandate<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the acceptance of cash for payment.)<\/span><\/p>\n It is great to see this pushback against the supposed cashless future because this is a trend<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that should very much be nipped in the bud. There are several reasons why cashless stores, and a cashless society more broadly, are a bad idea. Such stores are:<\/span><\/p>\n The issue goes beyond restaurants and retail stores; other services that are built around electronic payments should also offer cash options (or cash-like anonymous stored value cards). Those include ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, bike and scooter share systems, and transit systems. In San Francisco, for example, the city\u2019s bike-share program is providing<\/strong><\/span><\/a> an option to pay with cash. In DC, where I live, the Metro requires a smart card to use \u2014 but riders have the option to either register their card so that they can cancel it if it\u2019s lost or stolen, or buy it with cash and not register it to keep it more private.<\/span><\/p>\n Proponents of non-cash payment systems point to one of the biggest downsides of cash: the risk of loss or theft. That security risk is real, and we\u2019re certainly not going to tell anybody they should always use cash, especially for large purchases. That said, the security considerations are not one-sided. The harms that can result from privacy invasions (abuses, profiling, embarrassment, financial losses, etc.) should also be included in the concept of \u201csecurity,\u201d properly conceived. And payment networks have security risks that cash does not; ask anybody who has experienced identity theft and was forced to wrangle with a nightmare mix of credit card companies, debt collectors, credit scoring agencies, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n So what should you do if you walk into a store and are told: \u201cyour cash is no good here\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n The bottom line is that the technocratic \u201cdream\u201d of a cashless society is a vision in which we discard what is left of the anonymity that has characterized urban life since the dawn of modernity, and our freedom from the power of centralized companies like banks. Doing without cash may be convenient at times, but if we lose cash as an option we\u2019re going to regret it later.<\/span><\/p>\n Jay Stanley (@JayCStanley<\/strong><\/span><\/a>)\u00a0is senior policy analyst with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where he researches, writes and speaks about technology-related privacy and civil liberties issues and their future. \u00a0He is the editor of the ACLU\u2019s Free Future blog<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and has authored and co-authored a variety of influential ACLU reports on privacy and technology topics. Before joining the ACLU, he was an analyst at the technology research firm Forrester, served as American politics editor of Facts on File\u2019s World News Digest, and as national newswire editor at Medialink. He is a graduate of Williams College and holds an M.A. in American History from the University of Virginia.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This article originally featured at ACLU.org<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n
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