On June 25, the European Central Bank announced the latest situation of the two-year preparation phase of the digital euro CBDC. This phase is expected to last until October 2025. In the announcement, the central bank emphasized the importance of privacy and data protection, but at the same time, some currency characteristics raised concerns about possible privacy violations.
Dual concerns about privacy and surveillance
Daniel Batten, an entrepreneur and investor in the cryptocurrency space, criticized some of the features of the digital euro on June 26. Although the ECB claims to make privacy and data protection a top priority, Batten pointed out that some features of the digital euro could bring about the opposite results of the central bank's statements, raising public concerns about financial surveillance.

The European Central Bank has released a document and video promoting its digital euro and trying to allay concerns about CBDC investments it seeks to limit.
Ulrich Bindseil, Jürgen Schaaf and executive board member Piero Cipollone explained in a February 19 blog post that the digital euro CBDC would be “designed for payments, not investments.”
They added that many banks are concerned that their customers may withdraw their deposits to hold digital euros. "These concerns are unfounded," they said.
The European Central Bank is developing a digital euro CBDC with legal tender status as a digital payments solution for Europe. However, there are growing concerns that deposits may flow from retail banks to central banks that control CBDCs.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has committed to introducing upgraded privacy measures for the digital euro to ensure robust data protection and privacy standards.
The proposed regulations aim to establish a single access point to verify users’ digital euro holdings, known as holding limits.
The ECB, in collaboration with the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisory Authority (EDPS), has developed recommendations for maintaining strict personal data protection.
The recommendations include processing only necessary personal data, avoiding excessive concentration of such data, and introducing so-called privacy thresholds for online transactions to curb tracking for anti-money laundering purposes.

Piero Cipollone assured Parliament that the digital euro would have superior privacy protection features compared to existing commercial payment solutions, including anonymous transactions for offline payments.
At a recent meeting with the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone discussed the upcoming digital euro, specifically its privacy features, infrastructure procurement and operational standards.
Cipollone’s speech highlighted the ECB’s positive approach to cooperating with EU entities on digital currency infrastructure. All these entities are registered within the EU and controlled by EU nationals, he added.