Coinspeaker German Regulator Orders World App to Delete All Biometric Data, Firm Appeals
World (WLD), the human-verification project previously known as Worldcoin, has come under the radar of German authorities.
Notably, a German privacy regulator, the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, directed World to erase all biometric data. The data collected by World was obtained by scanning users’ eyeballs as part of the verification process to prove they are humans.
World Appeals and Defends Practices
In an official statement, BayLDA emphasized that World must both provide documentation of its data deletion procedure and ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provisions. The regulator has set a deadline of one month from December 19, 2024, for the company to meet these requirements.
Meanwhile, it has also ordered World to delete some data records that were previously obtained without adequate legal authority. Additionally, it mandates the protocol to provide clear consent for specific processing steps in the future.
For clarification, the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, or BayLDA, is responsible for ensuring compliance with GDPR in the private sector. The update from BayLDA is the climax of a rigorous investigative process that commenced in April 2023.
Following the decision of BayLDA, World, the iris-scanning cryptocurrency project co-founded by Sam Altman swiftly appealed the ruling.
This is not the first country that World would have issues with in the EU. In June 2024, the company had to suspend its activities in Spain. This followed a decision by the Spanish Data Protection Agency to await the outcome of BayLDA’s investigation.
Shifting Focus Amid Regulatory Scrutiny
Since its launch in 2023, the Proof-of-Humanity platform has faced regulatory hurdles. Government agencies have expressed concerns over collecting and storing users’ biometric data.
These concerns have lingered despite Altman’s assurances over the project. The company even shifted to a system that no longer stores the biometric data. However, the hurdles remain from regulatory bodies.
In a blog post following BayLDA’s decision, World hinted at a likely reason for its appeal. According to World, the outcome of BayLDA’s investigation hinged on operations and technologies that have become outdated. The company emphasizes that it has exceeded GDPR’s requirements by implementing stricter data protection measures. Specifically, World has ceased storing iris codes used for World ID authentication, and has deliberately purged all previously collected biometric data from its systems.
World has been having a running battle in some countries of Europe, including Portugal and France. In Portugal, there were concerns over the collection of children’s biometric data.
Despite this, World decided in October to target Asian and Latin American countries such as Malaysia, Japan, and Argentina. The company believes that such countries present greater expansion opportunities than Europe. Arguably, it has recorded important milestones in these regions.
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German Regulator Orders World App to Delete All Biometric Data, Firm Appeals
