Source · Select Committees · Treasury Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 47
Concern about misuse of consumer data by digital pound wallet providers for commercial purposes.
Conclusion
We are also concerned about potential misuse of consumers’ data by the user-facing firms that would manage consumers’ digital pound wallets, particularly given that the commercial use of this data could form a key part of the business model for wallet providers, in a way that it doesn’t for banks.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges concerns about private sector data misuse and states firms would comply with existing UK data protection laws, promising to explore privacy-enhancing designs and set out the regulatory framework in detail during the design phase.
Paragraph Reference:
47
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
HM Treasury and the Bank also understand that there are concerns about how the private sector would use personal data in a digital pound ecosystem. All firms that process personal data in a digital pound ecosystem would be subject to rigorous standards of privacy and would have to comply with UK data protection laws, such as UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. A digital pound could be privacy-enhancing by design, in order to give users greater control over the use and value of the data held by PIPs. We will explore in the design phase how this could work and will set out in greater detail the regulatory framework that would govern the digital pound.