Western countries are on the verge of becoming totalitarian Orwellian states. Shockingly, it is happening while governments keep saying that privacy is very important, and even it is one of the rights included in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. China is already an Orwellian country where Chinese Big Brother controls everything done and said and a Social Credit System in place. Sadly US and EU, supposedly defenders of the free world, are following the exact same collectivist path. You can see it throughout thousands of web sites where they collect information. The first message you get, before you can continue is:

Your privacy is very important to us.

If my privacy is very important to you then simply do not collect any information about me and don’t ask me to create an account. I do not want to have another account and I do not want to log in using Google or Facebook or any account I may have. I simply do not want to “log in”. Period. If an account is needed for the app to work, then allow me to have a nickname account. Don’t ask me my real name, my phone number or home address. If it is a paid service, allow me to pay anonymously. Today it is possible.

Although current web experience of logging everywhere might be annoying, the big problem is not with companies or websites, but with the law itself. Governments are imposing more and more KYC (Know Your Customer) laws as if these were the panacea that lead us to a crimeless world. Among all KYC laws, those in the financial world are the worst.

Why does the bank have to know my life? Why does the bank have to inform the State if I receive money in my account? If I want to withdraw some cash, why does the bank ask me what is the money I am withdrawing for? It is my money, so why does the State have to know where I am going to spend my money? This is ridiculous. I just might not know where I will spend the money I am withdrawing. Maybe I am just worried to have money in a bank where it is becoming increasingly complicated to get my hands on my own money. But it is not only ridiculous, it is a dangerous orwellian slippery slope.

The biggest problem we currently face in the world is the ever growing concentration of power in the State. It is not climate change, not racism, not gender inequality, not wealth inequality, not any inequality. Those are all red herrings to keep us from looking at the concentration of power. Some could argue that our biggest problem is war. I would argue that is a consequence of the existence of the State. State plus fiat money is an explosive mix that results in endless wars. With sound money, wars would be very limited as States sooner or later would run out of money to finance the war. And without States, no wars. It is the State that sends its own people to war. No one would voluntarily start a war, except for the ones in charge of the State. But even those in charge of the State, in absence of the State, would not start a war either. War is only possible because the State.

The State is to society as a cancer to a human body. Both of them always expand and need more and more resources from the body/society where they live. Apart from breathing, there are very few things you can do without being taxed:

• You work for money: income tax
• You invest your money: capital gain tax
• You spend your money: “value added” tax
• You save your money: inflation tax
• You buy a house: property tax
• You create a company: corporate income tax
• You give money: donation tax
• You die: inheritance tax
• You buy products from abroad: import tax
• You sell products abroad: export tax
• You have a car: car ownership tax
• You use your car: hydrocarbons tax
• You buy alcohol drinks: alcohol tax
• You buy ciggarettes: tobacco tax
• You buy electricity: your special electricity tax
• You generate electricity: generation tax
• …

The list goes on and on. In most wertern countries, the tax burden on the middle class exceeds 60% and even that is not enough for the government because they spend more than they manage to get through taxes. So they are eager to tax wherever they think there is someone to steal from. The State is not here to protect you, it is here to milk you.

We are their tax cattle.

In this context, KYC/AML (Know Your Customer / Anti Money Laundering) laws are not to prevent crime. That’s their excuse. The real reason is control, more and more control of the population that allows the State to tax everything. They don’t want any cow to escape without being milked.

While this is itself a problem, it is not the only one. Although KYC laws are usually advertised by States as being “for your own safety” or “for consumer protection”, ironically they make people much more unsecure, and let the door open to more dangerous risks.

KYC laws mandate a lot of companies to collect information about their customers, while at the same time impose severe sanctions if the data is hacked/lost. But here is the point: no matter how big the company is or how much the fine is, it cannot secure its customer’s data. Thousands of companies have being hacked, and thousands will be hacked every year.

And not only companies suffer from that. This is also applicable, and very specially, to States. Some have already been hacked and most will be hacked in the future. It is specially important with States because, in the end, when users give their information to some company, they are doing it voluntarily. On the contrary, when they give their information, including wealth information, to States, they do it under coercion, under threat of violence. They are forced by the State to give personal information that the State will sooner or later lose to hackers.

In Spain the tax agency was hacked and the data of over half a million people was stolen, exposing their wealth and physical address among other things. Half a million people more insecure, with greater risk of being asaulted at home. In a 2024 incident, UK government suffered the data loss of over one million people, including but not limited to tax information. France government also suffered a data breach in 2024 where data from more than 40 million people was stolen. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, most if not all european countries have suffered several hacks with data loss.

In Sweden, hackers obtained the tax records of some bitcoiners who had declared their holdings to the State and several of these people have been physically assaulted in their homes in order to rob them.

And it is not about not having enough money to protect the databases. It has also happened in the most powerful and technologically advanced country in the world. In 2015 hackers also breached US government databases and stole information of more than 20 million people. In US alone, in last years, there have been more than ten severe data breaches of government agencies where personal information from people was stolen.

There is simply no way to secure the data. The only secure data is the one that has not been shared. The less personal information you give to companies or the State, the safer you are. And as more  information about you is sent to the State or companies, more insecure you are. That is the reality of the digital realm.

In this context, KYC laws are nothing but crime-enabling laws. That is why the best way to make people safer is to abolish all KYC rules everywhere. Moreover, a good law would be one in which companies could not keep customer data unless it was strictly necessary to provide the service. It would also come with the very positive outcome of improving privacy and freedom everywhere.

The State will not acknowledge this, of course. It will keep parroting its excuses again and again, ignoring reality, because their goal is not your safety. Their goal is to have everybody under control to tax them as much as possible. Beware of those who say “for your own safety”. It’s never for your safety. It never was.