World (WLD, formerly known as Worldcoin), a digital identity verification project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was recently ordered by the German authorities to delete "biometric data collected through iris scanning" on the grounds that the collection of these data did not comply with the EU (General Data Protection Regulation) (GDPR) legal requirements.
Germany's Bavarian Data Protection Supervisory Office (BayLDA) pointed out in a statement on Thursday that World must submit a data deletion process that complies with GDPR specifications within one month. In addition, future processing of certain data will require the explicit consent of users; and personal information collected in the past that lacked legal basis must also be deleted.
Now, the investigation, which began in April 2023, has finally come to an end. However, according to BayLDA, World has appealed in an attempt to seek room for maneuver.
World was created by Sam Altman, an American technology tycoon and founder of ChatGPT. It is an "identity and financial network" based on blockchain. Users can scan their iris in exchange for a digital ID card (World ID). In some countries and regions, World ID can also be used. Get the project’s native token Worldcoin (WLD) for free.
So far, World has caused privacy concerns in many countries around the world. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Hong Kong and Argentina have launched investigations one after another. Even before the mainnet was launched, chaos such as "iris scalpers" and "iris black markets" had emerged.
Faced with regulatory resistance, World tried to compromise and said in an official statement: "BayLDA's findings mainly related to obsolete old technology and operational processes. Currently, our system no longer stores iris codes, and in the past The collected iris data has been voluntarily deleted to ensure that we no longer need to rely on retaining personal data to operate World ID."
"Illegal collection of "iris information"! The German authorities ordered World to "delete all of it" within a month. "This article was first published on (Block Guest).
