Spain has banned Worldcoin, the iris-scanning biometric, crypto project, for up to three months.

The European country’s privacy watchdog cited privacy concerns on how the company collects and processes biometric data.

“Spain’s data protection regulator AEPD has demanded that Worldcoin immediately cease collecting personal data in the country and stop using the data it has already gathered,” Disclose noted.

“The Spanish authority is using ‘urgency procedure’ powers contained in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the temporary data processing cessation order — which means the order can have a maximum duration of three months (so until mid June),” TechCrunch reports.

Worldcoin’s goal is to “create a unique digital identity for global citizens.”

Per TechCrunch:

The AEPD said it has received several complaints about Worldcoin since the venture started operating in the market last summer, including related to the level of information about the processing Worldcoin provides; the collection of data from minors; and how withdrawal of consent is not allowed.

“The processing of biometric data, considered in the [GDPR] as having special protection, entails high risks for people’s rights, taking into account their sensitive nature. Consequently, this precautionary measure is a decision based on exceptional circumstances, in which it is necessary and proportionate to adopt provisional measures aimed at the immediate cessation of this processing of personal data, preventing its possible transfer to third parties and safeguarding the fundamental right to personal data protection,” it wrote.

Controversy has dogged Worldcoin’s effort to sign people up to a proprietary biometric system whose makers claim will let them use a unique identifier, aka the World ID, to verify their humanness online. Crypto comes into the mix as it provides eponymous tokens as quasi-payment for the iris scans that generate the unique identifier.

Worldcoin calls itself the “world’s largest identity and financial public network, open to everyone regardless of their country, background or economic status.”

According to Worldcoin’s website, World ID is “a privacy-preserving digital identity designed to help solve important, identity-based challenges, including proving an individual’s unique personhood.”

Worldcoin’s goal is to distribute “tokens” to every human on Earth.

Last year, Kenya suspended Worldcoin.

African Country Suspends Iris-Scanning Worldcoin

Forbes reports:

Worldcoin’s World ID requires users to scan their eyeballs through “orbs,” a device that captures an image of the user’s irises, before they receive a unique form of identification and the Worldcoin cryptocurrency.

AEPD requested Tools for Humanity, the company that collects and processes users’ personal data, to cease collecting additional data for new users in the country and stop using the data already gathered by Worldcoin.

Processing biometric data requires “special protection” because of “high risks to the rights of individuals,” including possible data transfers to third parties, the agency said.

Jannick Preiwisch, Worldcoin’s data protection officer, said in a statement to Forbes the Spanish agency was “circumventing EU law” while spreading “inaccurate and misleading claims” about the company, which added its World ID was “the most privacy-preserving and safest solution for asserting humanness in the age of AI.”

 

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