The claim "can surveil every transaction you make" does not seem justified. The way I see the process, the flow of Talers is strictly asymmetric and one way, w

The claim "can surveil every transaction you make" does not seem justified. The way I see the process, the flow of Talers is strictly asymmetric and one way, with a clear distinction between users(consumers) and merchants: 1. From exchange to user (deposits). 2. From user to merchant (payments for orders). 3. From merchant to exchange (withdrawals). The monitorable steps are 1. and 3., which allow tracking the total amount that you can spend and the total amount that the merchant has received. The actual transactions (step #2) are not surveilable, the system does not track who paid what to whom. The statement "every time you pay you both were previously a recipient" is not correct, since as a non-merchant user you can't be a recipient of payments, you can't have any income in Taler, you can only spend what you yourself deposited in the system through an exchange. And vice versa, as a merchant, you can't make any payments, you can only withdraw your Taler income for real money at the exchange - it's exactly just as with a merchant account for receiving credit card payments, which is strictly separate from any credit card payments that the company might want to make themselves.