The Bank of England (BoE) and HM Treasury have published their response to the consultation on a UK digital pound. The response confirms that neither the BoE nor the government would have access to users' personal data. Furthermore, the authorities are committed to maintaining access to cash for those who prefer it. Continuation of work on the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will help strengthen the UK's position as a competitive global leader in finance.
In a statement responding to the announcement, Susannah Copson, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch said: "The Government's new commitment to introduce laws that would prohibit the state programming digital pounds to control how they're spent, and to protect financial privacy, shows that the 50,000 of us that responded to the consultation have had a real impact, although we await further detail to see how robust the legal and technological protections are. We still have serious privacy concerns about a digital pound becoming a spycoin since the Government also said today that a UK CBDC, unlike cash, will not be anonymous to enable surveillance and financial policing."
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