The biometric identity project, Worldcoin, has been prohibited from functioning in Spain for a maximum of three months, as per a press statement issued by the AEPD, the Spanish data agency. Using the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a foundation, the agency will also mandate that Worldcoin cease using the data that has already been gathered from Spanish citizens.
Spain Announces Worldcoin Precautionary Steps
The Spanish government is tightening its control over Wordcoin’s data collection procedures. Worldcoin’s parent firm, Tools of Humanity, was asked to halt operations for a maximum of three months as a precaution by Spain’s data watchdog, AEPD.
The AEPD study states that Worldcoin will also have to stop using the data that has already been gathered from Spanish citizens. The action was taken in response to multiple complaints the agency received about the project, which included, among other violations, “insufficient information, the collection of data from minors, and the fact that consent cannot be withdrawn.”
The agency emphasized that because biometric data is sensitive, processing it needs to be handled with extra care under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union (EU). This action was justified as part of a “exceptional circumstance” to halt the gathering of this data, stop it from being transferred to third parties, and defend the fundamental rights to data protection in order to prevent “irreparable damage.”
Worldcoin’s data security officer, Jannick Preiwisch, told Reuters that the company had attempted to get in touch with the AEPD months prior but had been unsuccessful. He said:
We are appreciative of the chance we now have to assist them in comprehending the crucial details of this necessary and acceptable technology.
With Worldcoin, users can use the Orb—a gadget that reads iris scans—to demonstrate their “humanness.” Users who register are rewarded with WLD tokens, the project’s currency. Nonetheless, a number of nations have been opposing the project more and more, critiquing its methods for gathering and processing data.
The investigation was recently started by the South Korean government to find out if Worldcoin has broken any local data protection laws. The Personal Information privacy Commission of South Korea, which oversees data privacy laws, declared sanctions in the event that certain infractions were verified.
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