Opinion: Lizandro Pieper, Research Director at Defi Education Fund
“Right to privacy” is often seen in the crosshairs of critics who only consider the privacy necessary for criminal conduct, as opposed to ordinary people who want to live with dignity so as not to be harmed.
There are people in Washington who believe that collecting and storing personal information from millions of Americans is good for society, and that evolving financial technologies such as distributed financial finance (DEFI) should adopt or be banned.
This ignores the reality of the dangers of creating honeypots of people’s sensitive data. Being the most valuable commodity of the 21st century is not a mysterious revelation for everyday Americans. It is protected or risks being misused at other costs.
Classify defi
Ipsos and the Defi Education Fund recently conducted a research project called “Demystificial Defi.” It consists of qualitative and quantitative data on a variety of issues related to the current financial system and Defi, and there have been deep concerns about the loss of privacy among the multiple findings.
Specifically, Americans felt that personal financial data was not secure and that financial privacy was an illusion. More than half (54%) of Americans surveyed express a sense that the current financial system is not properly protecting personal information, and (56%) needs to change to the current financial system. The US financial system is less than a third of Americans who think it’s safe today.
Data Breaches and Disasters
This is obvious given the infinite data leakage and the breach of confidential personal information in recent years. Don’t forget about the 2017 Equifax data breach. 150 million Americans (almost half of the country) had their names, home addresses, Social Security numbers and even driver’s license numbers.
Since then, many data breaches have occurred – almost regularly, there have been 3,158 data compromises in 2024 alone, in an advantageous position for criminals who use stolen identities to control their financial accounts, make fraudulent transactions, and drain them. hand.
This is not the only concern associated with the financial system among Americans. In one interview, Queens, a New York resident, expressed his dissatisfaction that the financial system does not provide real privacy and that he is unable to make large-scale transactions without feeling he is being seen or that he has to explain his actions.
Related: Vitalik slams EU chat controls: “We all deserve privacy and security.”
Another New Yorker shared similar frustration, pointing to a lack of freedom from being tracked for all movements and an unfair accusation of suspicious activity that followed.
Power of Attorney for Monitoring
Without a doubt, our financial system and delegation of surveillance created an environment in which we are essentially guilty until we are innocent or at least we feel that way.
The careful eyes of our financial institutions and regulators have eroded our sense of financial autonomy and dignity, while failing to meet our national security goals and putting our freedom to live as we chose to.
With all this in mind, more than half of respondents interested in Defi, prioritized the full personal control of the security of their personal and financial data, amongst respondents,
Personal autonomy derived from privacy was central to Defi’s existence rooted in the encryptors of the early 1990s, and was quickly eroded by the world’s first introduction to information age and privacy rights and developing technology.
Among them, as far as privacy is concerned, advances in technology do not allow the status quo to be maintained. “The current situation is unstable,” Phil Zimmermann recognised.
In that regard, protection for those who develop technology to bring ownership of personal and financial data back to their own hands is paramount.
Surveillance technology continues to evolve, and malicious actors continue to steal information that it is leaking, but we don’t have to wait for such a consequence. Defi offers clear solutions to these problems, and Americans are keen to see such a remedy win. Our elected officials must act in the interest of the Americans.
Time for legislative measures
This means that Congress must pass laws that protect software developers from conquest against inappropriate and unburdened registration requirements and illegal prosecution, meaning that the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FINCEN) will remove the “mixer rules.”
Software developers should be able to continue building technology that provides privacy, and existing information gathering regimes should be modernised and not harmful to those who are intended to protect the law.
If the United States wants to be a beacon of freedom, if it is declared declared, it must work for people in a constantly evolving way and maintain the natural right to America’s natural privacy.
Opinion: Lizandro Pieper, research director at the Defi Education Fund.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not intended to be considered legal or investment advice, and should not be done. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or express Cointregraph’s views and opinions.