Spain Bans Worldcoin Project Over Sensitive Data Collection Concerns: Details

The decision to restrict Worldcoin’s operations in Spain has been finalised by AEPD, the data protection regulator of the country.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 8 March 2024 14:43 IST

Spain Bans Worldcoin Project Over Sensitive Data Collection Concerns: Details

Photo Credit: Reuters

Based in US’ San Francisco, Worldcoin officially launched in July 2023

Highlights

Worldcoin aims to issue World IDs to humans as bots and AI are on a rise
Worldcoin is Sam Altman’s brainchild
The project is already restricted in Kenya

The short-lived rally of the Worldcoin popularity came to a halt in several nations in recent months. Worldcoin's user data collection via eye scans has raised concerns among several governments around the world. This week, Spain became the latest nation to ban Sam Altman's ambitious project from collecting personal data and biometrics of Spanish citizens. What world leaders are seeing as riddled with privacy issues, Altman's Worldcoin project aims to create a unique identification of personhood now that bots and AI are on the rise.

The decision to restrict Worldcoin's operations in Spain has been finalised by AEPD, the data protection regulator of the country. In an official statement, the regulatory body has warned Worldcoin against collecting anymore data and also against using the already obtained information.

“The AEPD has received several complaints against this company denouncing, among other aspects, insufficient information, the collection of data from minors or that the withdrawal of consent is not allowed,” the statement from AEPD said this week.

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Based in US' San Francisco, Worldcoin officially launched in July last year. It aims to assign ‘World IDs' to global citizens as an ‘international proof of personhood'. With these IDs, people will not need to share their personal details to interact with web and websites. In August last year, representatives of the project had set up booths in several parts of the world – collecting eye scans of people through its own one-of-a-kind machine called the Orbs.

1/ A look inside the Orb :thread: pic.twitter.com/z48ldlLx5j
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) August 3, 2023

As people lined up before Worldcoin booths in different parts of the world including India, policymakers realised that this data collection process by Worldcoin seemed problematic. Kenya was among the first nations to take a stringent step towards controlling the Worldcoin craze — by suspending it indefinitely for the time being.

“The processing of biometric data, considered in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as having special protection, entails high risks for people's rights, taking into account their sensitive nature,” the Spanish regulator noted.

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This operational jerk for Worldcoin comes just a week after the project claimed that the World App surpassed one million daily users for the first time in February.

World App, the first wallet built for the Worldcoin project, passed 1M daily users this week. This community is incredible :saluting_face: pic.twitter.com/Mf6Y51gscQ
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) February 17, 2024

At the time, WLD, the native token of the Worldcoin project had recorded a jump of 140 percent over a period of seven days. WLD was trading at $7.58 (roughly Rs. 628) on February 19. Presently, the token is trading at $7.23 (roughly Rs. 597), as per CoinMarketCap.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Worldcoin, Spain, Ban

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More