3 ms·

I don't know what your percention of Norway is, but having moved around a bit and currently being based here, I see that Scandinavians have a different relation

by altacc 6y ago

I don't know what your percention of Norway is, but having moved around a bit and currently being based here, I see that Scandinavians have a different relationship with governments and corporations than in many other countries. For a start, it's not primarily seen as an adversarial relationship. It's more of the people, for the people. Not perfect, but Scandinavian societies rely on a high level of trust and it works, for now. There's been an increase in data protection recently, which I think is needed as it's a bit too transparent at times. The government doesn't know about every purchase you make but there is a lot of data sharing. However there is a lot more consumer protection and less power lies with unaccountable corporations than in many other capitalist countries, where corporations have almost free reign and have powerful influence over society, economy & politic. For example, credit scoring is relatively new here and is a lot less intense than other countries. In places like the UK/USA, credit scoring companies control your financial possibilities. Much less so in Scandinavia. There is a small number of people for whom a cashless society poses problems, but it's probably less, and a different subset, than you think. Those I know of through association tend to be those who suffer severe mental health issues. Old people have bank accounts, debit cards and mobile phones for digital transactions. As for homeless people, there are less of them in Scandinavia than in other countries. Almost all of them will still have a bank account and a mobile phone and be receiving state funds digitally. (Homelessness is not defined as living on the street, almost all the homeless are in temporary housing.)

Moru 6y ago
Besides, you still can pay with real money in most places, you just have to choose the right line at the exit. Not all of them take cash. For us that has no problems, card is so much easier to use but there are a lot of people that can't handle the tech and they should be able to buy things too. All this is marketed as better for crime prevention, less bank/store robbery. Ofcourse this only pushes the cost on the individual in the end though. If you can't rob the store, you can still find valuables in private houses with much lower security. Or just stop any youth on the street. Chances are they have an expensive phone if nothing else.
- altacc 6y ago
  Good point, I should have mentioned that cash is still accepted almost everywhere. I think the crime thing might not be a direct link, as a bank robber and an opportunistic street thief are probably different people. There is less opportunistic crime than elsewhere as a big driver of crime is people's situation which, in general, aren't bad enough to resort to crime. I'm still unnerved by the lax security everywhere, e.g. the tiny bolts and padlocks in common storage areas in apartment blocks, which are an increasing target for thieves as they are easy pickings. Another benefit is BankID, which makes fraud & identity theft is a lot more difficult as there is an easy and secure way of identifying yourself online. Even with somebody's ID number you can't impersonate them in most situations. This is something I've really appreciated working in the finance industry. The old way of calling up and accepting people's identity purely on trust never sat well with my non-Scandinavian mind.
  - Moru 6y ago
    On the other hand, BankID has really taken of as the main fraud avenue. It's so much easier to just look someone up, punch in their personal number, start a log in to the bank and then call them up saying someone is trying to steal their money, they need to stop it by verifying their identity with BankID. This instead logs the attacker in to the bank with full access. Now you just need to start a transfer to your bank account and tell them the ID failed, try again. Money is yours, now just make it jump between a few more temporary accounts and let your friend take out the cash at the ATM.
    - altacc 6y ago
      This is not unique to BankID though. Voice phishing is a global problem and independent of authentication method.
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by altacc 6y ago

Moru 6y ago

Besides, you still can pay with real money in most places, you just have to choose the right line at the exit. Not all of them take cash. For us that has no problems, card is so much easier to use but there are a lot of people that can't handle the tech and they should be able to buy things too. All this is marketed as better for crime prevention, less bank/store robbery. Ofcourse this only pushes the cost on the individual in the end though. If you can't rob the store, you can still find valuables in private houses with much lower security. Or just stop any youth on the street. Chances are they have an expensive phone if nothing else.

altacc 6y ago
Good point, I should have mentioned that cash is still accepted almost everywhere. I think the crime thing might not be a direct link, as a bank robber and an opportunistic street thief are probably different people. There is less opportunistic crime than elsewhere as a big driver of crime is people's situation which, in general, aren't bad enough to resort to crime. I'm still unnerved by the lax security everywhere, e.g. the tiny bolts and padlocks in common storage areas in apartment blocks, which are an increasing target for thieves as they are easy pickings. Another benefit is BankID, which makes fraud & identity theft is a lot more difficult as there is an easy and secure way of identifying yourself online. Even with somebody's ID number you can't impersonate them in most situations. This is something I've really appreciated working in the finance industry. The old way of calling up and accepting people's identity purely on trust never sat well with my non-Scandinavian mind.
- Moru 6y ago
  On the other hand, BankID has really taken of as the main fraud avenue. It's so much easier to just look someone up, punch in their personal number, start a log in to the bank and then call them up saying someone is trying to steal their money, they need to stop it by verifying their identity with BankID. This instead logs the attacker in to the bank with full access. Now you just need to start a transfer to your bank account and tell them the ID failed, try again. Money is yours, now just make it jump between a few more temporary accounts and let your friend take out the cash at the ATM.
  - altacc 6y ago
    This is not unique to BankID though. Voice phishing is a global problem and independent of authentication method.

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