Snippings

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Americans are leaving behind more of their 401(k) savings as they switch jobs, sometimes without realizing it.

Millions of U.S. workers are losing out on billions of dollars in investment gains as their old employers sweep their 401(k) money into individual retirement accounts that are parked in cash, something companies can do with small balances.

From: Forgotten 401(k) Accounts Are Costing Americans Billions in Lost Investment Gains – WSJ.

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The settlement allows merchants to do two things that violate everything we know about consumer psychology: refuse premium cards entirely, or charge different fees based on which card you use. Your Chase Sapphire Reserve might be declined at your favorite restaurant. Your Amex Platinum could cost you 3% extra at the grocery store.

From: Could Credit Card Surcharges Trigger A Mass Exodus From Premium Cards?.

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Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union and a technology-related privacy expert, said that while the developments were framed as more convenient than physical ID documents, his concern was that they were creating a digital identity that can more easily be tracked online. He said that current privacy standards were inadequate to meet these new technologies and worried that people were set to face an “explosion of identity demands,” such as websites requiring you to scan an ID to access, instead of simply inputting your birthday, as is currently common.

From: What’s a Digital Passport and How Does It Work? – The New York Times.

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US retailers fear they will be short-changed by the demise of the penny, warning of new costs and potential legal liabilities.

From: US retailers try to handle change after penny’s demise.

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U.S. passports are automatically considered Real IDs, as are their digital versions on both Apple and Google wallet apps.

From: What’s a Digital Passport and How Does It Work? – The New York Times.

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The fundamental problem is that AI must compress reality into model-legible forms. In this setting, adversaries can exploit the compression. They don’t have to attack the territory; they can attack the map.

From: Agentic AI’s OODA Loop Problem – Schneier on Security.

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The very mechanism that makes modern AI powerful—treating all inputs uniformly—is what makes it vulnerable.

From: Agentic AI’s OODA Loop Problem – Schneier on Security.

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Identity cards in Wallet are designed to provide an easy, fast, and more secure way for people to present their identity card.

Your digital identity card issuing authority, whether Apple or your government, does not know when or to whom you present your identity card.
Apple does not store images of your identity card. Apple uses only limited information from your identity card to prevent fraud and to display your ID in Wallet.
When presenting your ID in Wallet, your device will show you the specific information requested and will not present that information without your confirmation.
When adding your identity card through Wallet, your identity information and information about your Apple Account, and device use patterns and settings will be used by the digital identity card issuing authority to verify your identity and prevent fraud.
Additional verification information you submit when adding your ID, such as a Live Photo and recorded facial and head movements, will be used by Apple for fraud prevention for this feature and retained only until the digital identity card issuing authority authorizes or declines adding your identity card to Wallet.

From: Legal – IDs in Wallet & Privacy- Apple.

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Andreessen Horowitz Urges US Treasury to Adopt Decentralized Digital ID for Crypto AML
November 12, 2025

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has formally submitted a comment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, advocating for the adoption of modern, privacy-preserving digital identity systems as a primary method for combating illicit finance in the cryptocurrency sector.

The letter, a response to the Treasury’s Request for Comment on Innovative Methods To Detect Illicit Activity, argues that current Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations are outdated. It claims they force a reliance on inefficient, data-hoarding identity checks that are both poor at stopping crime and dangerous to consumer privacy.

Replacing Centralized Data Honeypots

In its submission to FinCEN, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a16z proposed a fundamental shift away from the traditional model where every financial service provider must collect and report detailed personal identifiable information. This old model, the firm argues, creates massive, centralized honeypots of data (like names, addresses, and social security numbers) that are prime targets for hackers.

The firm’s proposed solution centers on Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDCs). This user-centric model separates the act of identity verification from the act of identity use.

Under this framework, a user would be verified once by a trusted entity, such as their bank or a government agency. That entity would then issue a cryptographically-secured VDC, a digital passport or driver’s license, which the user would store in their personal digital wallet.

When a crypto exchange or DeFi protocol needs to comply with AML rules, the user wouldn’t hand over their personal data. Instead, using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), their wallet would cryptographically prove a specific fact without revealing the data itself.

For example, a user’s wallet could provide a yes/no answer to an exchange’s query: Is this user over 18? Is this user a U.S. citizen? Is this user not on the OFAC sanctions list? The exchange would receive a verifiable, trustworthy yes without ever learning the user’s name or date of birth, thus satisfying regulatory obligations without compromising privacy.

From: Andreessen Horowitz Urges US Treasury to Adopt Decentralized Digital ID for Crypto AML – ID Tech.

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John Naughton, who I always read, drew my attention to an excellent rant from Dave Winer about the infuriating tendency of chatbots to pretend that they’re your friend.

“Can we have a rule,” Dave wrote, “that AI bots must by default behave like a computer?

I suggest we adopt the