That's solely on the business.

They only deal in plastic and the workers feel safer that way. Not much they can rob you of except tootsie rolls.

If you go to China, it's difficult to use credit cards, even if they're valid international ones. Everybody that lives in a city pays through an app on their phone (Typically WeChat, which is like the Chinese version of Facebook Messenger) - I'm sure it's similar in other countries as well.

We'll just have to convince Square, Circle Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc to not sell off their customer's info

I can’t see them giving up the cash cow willingly.

that it's called a POS device. That could be taken two ways .....

I use Square for my side business.

First, nothing stops anyone from taking cash because they use Square. In fact Square will work just like a regular cash register and had a cash drawer available. It’s nonsense to equate the use of Square with the choice not to take cash.

A place that doesn’t take cash doesn’t take cash for whatever reasons, but the fact that they use Square isn’t causing that any more than any other credit card system- Square actually makes cash management easier than older standalone CC systems did.

Square knows where you shop or dine exactly the same amount as every other credit or depot card company always has. No more and no less.

Don’t want the annoyance of text or email receipts? Open a free gmail account just for your receipts and/or download a free text app that gives you a phone # to put in for text recipts. Don’t associate your mail email address with it and they won’t associate you with it.

There is no invasion of privacy with Square unless you willingly give them your main phone number or email. So don’t give that to them.

In fact Square has been a GREAT thing for tons of small businesses and startups. Before Square if you had a small business and wanted to take cards they had to sign a long term contract, but expensive equipment, be tied to a computer or phone line and pay monthly fees. It was a big hurdle for people with a small side business like landscaping, selling crafts at fairs, etc. It allows them to take credit and debit cards and access the market where they couldn’t before. Small food trucks and carts, small art dealers, so many others have access to sales they never would before Square.

The author of this piece is a moron who both doesn’t understand how Square or anybody CC system works and is mad about loss of privacy where he willingly handed over his main email and phone numbers like a fool.

You could even but a reloadable debit card and make up a completely fictitious email address and phone number. You would still be anonymous.

Only buying an anonymous debit card can really be considered extra work. 713-635-1278, nunya@business.com, there I just did the extra work of making up fake information. Done on the spot.

Or you could stand around with cash and give it to someone who is willing to order and pay for you.

You can boycott them, but all you'll really get is not being able to eat there.

"nunya@business.com"



Thanks for the idea.

You just click “no receipt” and go on your way. Entering an email or phoen# is only if you want a receipt copy sent to you.

waiter took my card, and the receipt was emailed to me before I knew what was going on. The software somehow tied into in my credit card and conatct info without me giving it nor with my permission.

Now that I know what's going on maybe I can control it. I just find the whole process so underhanded and intrusive that I'll try to avoid SQUARE establishements for the immediate future.

When you use Square and you enter your email for a receipt they automatically send all recipts to that email from that time on, unless you enter a different one later.

What extra work?

A fake phone number or email or just say “I don’t want a receipt”. Square remembers emails tied to a card so you literally have to only give the fake email or to an account just for receipts only once.

If you would rather boycott than literally enter a few keystrokes in a screen one time, then I guess do that.

For ones that don’t do cash, that isn’t an issue with Square. It’s a decision that basically says they don’t trust their employees.

I go to festivals and sell books and the like...Square makes it easy (well, I pass it off to my husband as he has the smartphone). Most of the small vendors use it--the small percentage they charge is worth the extra sales. But yeah, we all take cash as well.
One of the things I liked about our last trip to Ireland was that the waiters all had hand-held devices and didn't just disappear with our credit card to finish the sale. Finally seeing that here.

I saw them used in France in the late 1990s - your credit card is never out of your sight so the waiter can't run off a few extra charge slips, as has happened to us in the US. And if you're paying with cash, European waiters usually carry enough money on them to make change at the table. Maybe their employers just trust them more.

These valuable tips for avoiding handing over a lot of your personal information to Square are nice, but how many people know about this? I'm not a moron, but maybe I am when it comes to Square. If my credit card company annoys me by selling off my information, I can go get another credit card. What is my choice when I'm standing at the point of sale and the Square is demanding my personal information and the retailer isn't equipped to handle cash? I guess I can just leave whatever I picked out to buy and walk out. THAT would be good for small businesses, many of which seemed to do okay before Square.

But yeah, to transact purchases in today's business environment, I need to have a smart phone that costs me $100 a month, an extra e-mail address just for receipts, an extra smart phone for another $25 each month that I use just for purchase transactions, because God forbid that small businesses actually cater to their customers and take into account all the costs in their business models. Which makes me a moron and a fool, I guess.

Entering your email or phone # into square is 100% optional. It isn’t mandatory.

If you don’t need a receipt, just don’t enter it.

If you want your receipts, then set up an email for it.

I don’t get where you think you need any smartphone, much less an extra one, or any of that. If email receipts bug you a second gmail account is free and takes 5 minutes one time to set up. You don’t need a smart phone to pay with a card. If you want text receipts but not to your normal number you use any of dozens of free apps or if you don’t want a smart phone at all get a free google voice account.

You can take 5 minutes and set up a free gmail account and google voice account using the free computers at the library and it’s set up for life. You then have a totally free email and phone number. Bam. 5 minutes, no cost. None of this nonsense about needing a smart phone or two smart phones

As I said, all of these optional options are carefully spelled out by Square before the customer transacts his or her business, right? Because I'm not seeing that. I get to the point of sale, and here's a cute little machine taking my information for I don't know what. Who's telling me about all this? The Square? Some helpful person who knows all about it? Nobody?

I used to get a receipt at the point of sale. A nice piece of paper I could use for my own records or to return unsatisfactory merchandise. Now, I need a computer, a printer, an extra e-mail account, and a smart phone for all these free apps that I never needed before. Yeah, that's really convenient. I don't want to give you my main phone number, and you called me a moron for not understanding that ahead of time. So I need another phone number that I can feed into the Square. Or I need a Google voice account, which seems really secure.

As I said before, if your business model is that heavily dependent on me giving you a lot of personal information or setting up a bunch of alternative e-mail accounts and voice accounts and phone lines, maybe your business model isn't workable. Sorry you went out of business because your customers are morons who don't feel like setting up an entire alternative personal internet profile just to go to your restaurant or buy your merchandise.

restaurant or store that won't take cash, etc. Nope. Keep your stuff.

lived before in a world where government clerks could pinpoint the current location of a large majority of citizens. The new capabilities of face and body recognition cameras are terrifying. We're all categorized by political leanings in databases.

The power an authoritarian government could misuse to control the populace is already enormous. Whole counties could have their utilities turned off and roads blocked to change focus from rebellion to survival. And, of course, the need to use cards for normal daily life could be turned into a tool of oppression and control in many ways.

that's the trade-off with technological advancement in an unfiltered capitalistic society.

First, there is no correlation between using SQUARE as a payment method and being cash only.

Second, working on the reality that many people have and choose to use credit cards, SQUARE provides a cost-effective processing platform in comparison to the bank-based systems.

Third, every credit card company you have a card with "knows where you go and how you spend your money".

There's a very good Chinese restaurant near my home. It only takes cash. No cards. No checks. If I feel like a meal from there and have no cash on hand, I have to go to an ATM before dining. Fortunately, there is a branch of my bank a block away, so it's no problem.

I could complain about that cash-only business, but won't. It's the place's decision. Besides, nobody in there speaks English very well, so I'd have a hard time complaining to them.

they share information and e-mails indiscriminately -- you have no control over it.

When is enough, enough?

Now that I know what to look for I will avoid establishments that use SQUARE only.

Just the first lurch to a cashless society

I pay cash whenever I have it for purposes of anonymity. I even use a VPN for anonymity.

Note who the big investors in Square are. I heard Intuit has a big slice, and that they sell access to everything they glean from their "service(s)" - total sharing whores.

No Thanks! lol

These things are going to happen whether we like it or not. They, the ubiquitous ‘they’, are miles ahead of us.

Even paying with cash can be followed by the system. If you get cash out of your bank there are already eyes on you and video of you.

It might be possible to be completely off the grid, but who can really do that anymore?

After re-reading the link, I realize the writer is a food critic and WOULD want anonymity. So I am doubly wrong.