Their work shows that of the world’s 193 governments, at least 119 are currently researching, piloting, or deploying CBDCs. While other groups have launched similar efforts, the HRF’s tracker has a unique focus on “how CBDCs will impact the civil liberties and human rights of people living under authoritarian regimes.”
As it stands, Americans do not have the same constitutional protections for their financial data as for other types of personal effects. For example, while law enforcement needs to demonstrate probable cause that a crime was committed to obtain a valid search warrant for someone’s home, the same protection does not apply to someone’s financial records at a bank.
The Bank Secrecy Act is the foundation for an extensive anti-money laundering surveillance and regulatory framework, one that requires financial institutions to carefully identify their customers and monitor their transactions for “suspicious activity.”