A sculpture of Euro symbol is pictured in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, May 2, 2018.
REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Tougher privacy safeguards are needed for using a digital euro online, consumer lobby Finance Watch said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of mounting "Big Brother" concerns policymakers are having to confront.
Finance Watch said it accepted that some concessions would have to be made to ensure a digital euro is not used for money-laundering, making full, cash-like anonymity of digital payments difficult to achieve.
Nevertheless, as drafted, the proposed EU law gives higher levels of privacy to offline use of a digital euro stored in a customers "wallet", Finance Watch said.
"While the proposed approach to offline transactions goes a long way towards offering cash-like privacy, a higher level of privacy and data protection should also be applied to small, low-value online transactions," Finance Watch said.
Persons:
Francois Lenoir, Mairead McGuinness, Huw Jones, Mark Potter
Organizations:
REUTERS, Finance, European Central Bank, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, European Commission, Finance Watch, Big Tech, EU, The Bank of England, Thomson
Locations:
Brussels, Belgium, EU