Add to that the fact that the hackable magnetic strip is totally history here, and in the vast majority of transactions, both physical and online, the merchant

Add to that the fact that the hackable magnetic strip is totally history here, and in the vast majority of transactions, both physical and online, the merchant doesn't get any relevant data. I'm sure someone at some point will hack the chip, but right now you can safely lose your physical debit card, and you don't have to worry about leaks and hacks at merchants. Credit cards with their totally outdated zero authentication methods and that allow the merchant to store all the data necessary to use the account without even physically having that card are the ones that are completely unsafe. It's ridiculous that this system is still in use. Using credit cards instead of debit cards is really, really bad advice for anybody outside the US.