In a countercurrent movement of the growing global financial surveillance, the Government of Argentina has decided to begin to reduce the “excessive collection of financial data”, implementing “provisions aimed at simplifying the economic life of citizens and guaranteeing the free use of their savings.”
The call Historical reparation plan for the savings of Argentines It was communicated by the President of the President (OPRA) on the afternoon of May 22, and immediately agencies such as the Customs Control and Collection Agency (ARCA) updated the minimum thresholds of financial movements that it can monitor citizens, as reported cryptootics.
The measure is of special relevance in the global context, where the financial persecution of citizens is increasingly deepened, justified under the argument of combating money laundering.
Only one day before the opinion of the Opra, Cryptonoticias published an editorial on the subject of hacking to Coinbase where it is claimed that the measures of knowing your client (KYC) Instead of decreasing crime, they multiply it, as a consequence of the proliferation of hackeos to databases.
In the article, we show how these policies, born in the 70s, have only deepened over time, reducing individual freedom, turning business into state officials, and treating citizens as criminals until proven otherwise.
The head of Arca, Juan Pazo, revealed yesterday that “until today, credit card administrators inform Ark all the purchases made by a person using that means of payment. From now on they will not inform themselves, so the amount of personal consumption will be protected as all private information”, which represents a triumph for individual privacy. In Opra’s statement it expands:
“This excessive collection of data, which would supposedly allow the State to control the illicit money, has proven to be totally ineffective. With these reforms, the universe of information that is received and can focus on truly suspicious operations will be reduced, prioritizing the investigation, search and denunciation of drug traffickers, corrupt and other criminals.”
Office of the President of Argentina.
A fact that supports such a statement was the filtration known as the FINCEN FILES which revealed that bank giants such as JPMorgan, Bank of America or Deutsche Bank They facilitated USD 2 billion washing between 1999 and 2017. And, although they reported these suspicious operations, to the authorities, nothing was done for it.
Similar to what happened with the prohibition of alcohol in the United States of 1920, the persecutory measures on Argentine savers have led them to escape to black markets to “protect their savings from the claws of the State”, as the statement poses.
These measures will be consolidated by means of a bill with modifications to the Tax Criminal Law and the Tax Procedure Law.
Thus, Argentina has the opportunity to give a global example about How an economy could be more prosperous when private property is free and respected. If the success of these measures is verified over the years, Argentina would sit a positive precedent for citizens of other countries in the world to press their rulers to reform their current financial surveillance regimens.
