Contrary to a lot of people here, I would welcome such steps taken by legal merchants and businesses. Because legal businesses are bound to the comply with the local laws and regulations. Also I don't understand why would anyone resist such KYC requirement if that particular individual isn't doing anything illegal. If I have a t-shirt store today and my payment settlement provider is asking for KYC, why would I deny the request and take my business elsewhere?? What's the problem in here??
this is basically the "nothing to hide argument". there are a number of problems with it. read about them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument#Against_the_argumenti quite like this position:
First, if individuals have privacy rights, then invoking "nothing to hide" is irrelevant. Privacy, understood as a right to control access to and uses of spaces, locations, and personal information, means that it is the right holder who determines access. To drive this point home Moore offers the following case. "Imagine upon exiting your house one day you find a person searching through your trash painstakingly putting the shredded notes and documents back together. In response to your stunned silence he proclaims 'you don’t have anything to worry about – there is no reason to hide, is there?'" Second, individuals may wish to hide embarrassing behavior or conduct not accepted by the dominant culture. "Consider someone’s sexual or medical history. Imagine someone visiting a library to learn about alternative lifestyles not accepted by the majority." Finally, Moore argues that "nothing to hide," if taken seriously, could be used against government agents, politicians, and CEO's. This is to turn the “nothing to hide” argument on its head. Moore argues that the NSA agent, politician, police chief, and CEO have nothing to hide so they should embrace total transparency like the rest of us. "But they don’t and when given the technological tools to watch, the politician, police chief, or CEO are almost always convinced that watching others is a good thing."
why volunteer to give up your privacy when it's never been necessary before? how about the risk of 3rd party compromise of your data, which happens literally every day now? why do government/police have us regular folks under surveillance but we know nothing about them?
and then there's this:
Harvey A. Silverglate estimated that the common person, on average, unknowingly commits three felonies a day in the US.
i hope the government isn't watching you too closely, avikz!