Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 26 -
Title: "digital footprint" fear of exposure, how to guard your digital renminbi I privacy?
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Yu
"Touch" and "Scan", these mobile payment methods that we are gradually familiar with, on the one hand, bring a convenient payment experience, on the other hand, they also cause many people to worry about "privacy protection" and worry about being Internet platforms and third-party payment institutions have excessively acquired "digital footprints."
Recently, the "controllable anonymity" feature of digital renminbi has once again entered people's field of vision.
The public is curious about how the digital renminbi is "anonymous"?
How to be "controllable"?
Can you protect your privacy and security?
How can the digital renminbi be "anonymous"?
As the pilot areas carried out rounds of testing activities, the mystery of the digital renminbi was gradually lifted.
The payment experience similar to Alipay, WeChat Pay, etc. makes users quickly pay for digital renminbi without a teacher, but it is also easy to overlook the difference between them: using digital renminbi does not need to bind any bank card.
This point precisely reflects the "anonymity" characteristics of the digital renminbi.
"The controllable anonymity feature of digital renminbi is to meet the needs of reasonable anonymous payment and privacy protection." Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, said a few days ago that digital renminbi can achieve small amounts of anonymity technically, only with You can open a wallet with your mobile phone number.
Of course, this type of wallet has a low daily transaction limit, which can only meet the daily micropayment needs.
This can be confirmed from the pilot activities carried out in many places before.
At present, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing have conducted 7 rounds of digital RMB red envelope tests. The number of red envelopes distributed is 150 million yuan, and the amount of a single red envelope is basically around 200 yuan. The highest level of red envelopes randomly distributed in Chengdu is 238 yuan.
Even if some users have recharged their digital renminbi wallets, the payment amount falls into the category of micropayments.
In addition, although the six banks of Industry, Agriculture, China, China Construction, Communications, and Postal Savings are deeply involved in the test activities, opening a digital RMB wallet does not need to bind any bank's bank card, only the user's mobile phone number is required.
Participating users only need to choose one of the banks to provide services, such as receiving digital RMB red envelopes through the bank.
However, there are also people who are puzzled: Now that mobile phone numbers are all real-name systems, isn't it still impossible to be anonymous?
In this regard, Mu Changchun explained that although telecom operators have also participated in the research and development of digital renminbi, in accordance with current national laws and regulations, telecom operators are not allowed to disclose user information to third parties such as the central bank.
Therefore, digital renminbi wallets opened with mobile phone numbers are completely anonymous to the central bank and various operating agencies.
How does digital RMB protect privacy?
Can digital renminbi protect privacy just by opening a personal wallet anonymously?
Of course more than that.
In several recent pilot tests, the payment scenario of digital renminbi has been expanded from offline stores to online.
In some pilot cities, the digital RMB wallet supports multiple sub-wallet applications such as JD.com, Didi Chuxing, and Meituan Bibi.
Don't underestimate the design of this "sub-wallet", this is an important part of the digital renminbi to protect user privacy.
Yan Guo said that every online transaction based on a bank account will leave a "digital footprint", and the most "gold content" of which is all kinds of financial information.
Some Internet platforms and third-party payment institutions track and obtain a large number of users' account information, transaction information, credit information, etc., and push financial products by mining users' financial behavior.
This is not only unbearable, but also secretly implants the concepts of "advanced consumption" and "over-consumption" into vulnerable groups such as students.
In order to solve this problem, in the online consumption scenario of digital renminbi, user payment information will be packaged and encrypted, and then pushed to the e-commerce platform in the form of a sub-wallet.
The platform cannot directly obtain users' personal information, which effectively guarantees the privacy protection of users' core information.
In fact, not only e-commerce platforms, but also banks that provide services, merchants who receive payments offline, and individuals who receive transfers will not obtain the personal information of payment users, because the transactions between digital RMB wallets have passed technology and systems Realized anonymization processing.
Mu Changchun said frankly that the protection of user privacy by digital renminbi is the highest among the current payment tools.
Why can't the digital renminbi be completely anonymous?
Some people may ask, since privacy and security are so important, why isn't the digital renminbi completely anonymous?
Digital RMB is positioned to replace part of cash, so it needs to have cash-like liquidity and anonymity.
However, if the degree of anonymity is too high, and it is easy to carry, it may be targeted by criminals and become a tool for illegal transactions.
"Controllable anonymity" is an important feature of the digital renminbi. On the one hand, it must protect the public’s needs for reasonable anonymous transactions and personal information protection; on the other hand, it must also prevent, control and combat money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and other illegal and criminal activities. The objective need for financial security.
At present, it has become an international consensus that the central bank's digital currency realizes anonymity on the basis of controllable risks.
When central banks and international organizations explore the anonymity of central bank digital currencies, they all regard risk prevention as an important prerequisite, and designs that cannot meet the requirements of anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and anti-tax evasion will be rejected by one vote.
If it is stolen, can the loss be recovered?
The transactions are "anonymous". In case of digital renminbi fraud, can the losses be recovered?
Don't worry, although digital renminbi transactions are "anonymous" but "controllable".
Although digital renminbi wallets can be opened with a mobile phone number, it is not impossible to combat crime.
Financial departments and telecom operators each have a part of the data. Once they encounter criminal acts, they can hand over relevant evidence clues to the judicial organs, and the law enforcement departments can search for them according to their plans.
In addition, the digital renminbi wallet itself adopts a hierarchical classification design, and different levels of digital wallets can be opened according to the degree of customer identification.
Small payments can be completely anonymous, but if you want to make large payments, you need to upgrade your "wallet" and provide relevant information elements as required to prevent the risk of large suspicious transactions.
Mu Changchun said that the digital renminbi adopts a "small amount anonymous, large amount traceable" design. If a telecommunications fraud using digital renminbi occurs, it can help the people recover the money and protect the people's property safety.