Spain asks Worldcoin to stop eye scanning due to privacy issues

2024-03-06 19:08:02

BARCELONA (AP) — The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) ordered that Worldcoin, the company created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which scans eyeballs to make digital IDs in exchange for cryptocurrencies, to cease operations in the European country for three months amid concerns regarding what it is doing with users’ personal data.

The stated goal of Worldcoin is to give people a form of identification that cannot be stolen or duplicated. He noted that the way it can do this is by creating a “global ID” by scanning people’s eyeballs through “orbs,” a device that captures an image of their irises, the colored parts of the eyes.

In exchange, people who sign up get Worldcoin cryptocurrencies.

The AEPD on Wednesday asked Worldcoin’s parent company, Tools for Humanity Corporation, to stop collecting personal data and retain all information already collected.

The agency said in a statement that it had received several complaints once morest the company ranging from collecting the personal information of minors to not allowing people to withdraw their consent to share personal data.

People have lined up at the points where these orbs are placed in cities like Madrid and Barcelona in recent months. More than 360,000 people in Spain have signed up for Worldcoin, according to the company’s most recent data, from November.

Although Worldcoin argues that the data is used to create a unique and secure form of identification, privacy experts fear that the company might use the information in other ways, such as personalized marketing.

That has led other countries to investigate Worldcoin’s operations, including France and Germany.

The Kenyan government has also suspended new registrations on Worldcoin while it investigates whether citizens’ information is properly protected.

Worldcoin responded that its operations preserve privacy.

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