| What is your plan for the future? At some point
| merchants may not have
| equipment to swipe?

Maybe not. My current plan is for now.

I don't see why you feel so strongly in your
defense of the changes. You've posted a flurry
of adamant posts saying that people should
accept the changes and not worry. I'm just
saying that I'm dubious, I want to be careful,
and I want to understand exactly what I'm
dealing with. And based on what I know now
I'm trying to protect my privacy/security. Doesn't
that make sense?

I find your approach is usually a symptom of
ostrich thinking: People who don't want to deal
with things get annoyed by people who do. Mention
computer security/privacy and the ostriches immediately
start making tinfoil hat jokes, because they don't
want to be reminded of what they're trying hard
to ignore. I've never subscribed to that strategy.
If you put your head in the sand you're likely to
get burned in the ass, or worse.
Willful ignorance seems like the relaxing option, but
in the end it's actually far more demanding and tiring
work than simply relating to things in the first place.

It's the pebble-in-the-shoe syndrome. We avoid a pebble
in our shoe because it seems like a hassle to stop and
take it out. Eventually we've got a sore foot and a pain
in our hip joint. Finally we tear off our shoe, furiously
mad at that pebble -- "I politely ignored you. How dare
you keep pestering me?!"