Digital euro and privacy: ECB seeks to reassure

Piero Cipollone, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), said on 26 August 2026 that the digital euro will offer “the highest level of privacy allowed by current technology”. Addressing concerns that authorities could track payments, he said the Eurosystem would be “structurally unable” to link a user to their transactions, whether online or offline.

The ECB’s digital currency is expected to enter into service in 2029, with two payment modes. Offline payments will replicate the characteristics of a cash transaction: only the payer and the recipient will have access to the transaction details. For online transactions, only the banks involved will be able to identify users, and solely for anti-money laundering purposes. According to Piero Cipollone, these online payments will therefore offer greater privacy than a conventional bank transfer.

However, digital rights organisations have already challenged these arguments. In a joint statement, Austrian group Epicenter.works and several other organisations argued that the digital euro’s privacy protections rely too heavily on institutional safeguards and not enough on technical mechanisms.

According to the signatories, a promise enshrined in law can be weakened during implementation, restricted by a court ruling or even removed by lawmakers. The organisations are therefore calling for technical safeguards that would make personal information inaccessible, regardless of the legal framework.