The Data Protection Agency orders Worldcoin from continuing to process personal data in Spain. „What we have done is raise the alarm in Europe.” the Agency says.

Spain has moved to block Sam Altman’s cryptocurrency project Worldcoin, the latest blow to a venture that has raised controversy in multiple countries by collecting customers’ personal data using an eyeball-scanning “orb”. Worldcoin has already registered 4.1 mn users („unique humans”) in 36 countries ( where Orb verifications happened) and more than 35 mil. Wallet transactions by World App users.

This decision is based on exceptional circumstances, where it is necessary to adopt precautionary measures aimed at the immediate cessation of the processing activities to prevent the possible transfer of data to third parties and to safeguard the fundamental right to the protection of personal data. The temporary prohibition of activity in Spain is valid for a maximum period of three months.

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The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has ordered a precautionary measure against Tools for Humanity Corporation so that it ceases the collection and processing of personal data being carrying out in Spain in the framework of its Worldcoin project, and to block the data already collected. The AEPD has received several complaints against this company about insufficient information, the collection of data from minors and the fact that consent cannot be withdrawn, among other infringements.

„The processing of biometric data, which under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) merits special protection, given their sensitive nature, entails high risks to the rights of individuals. 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 such processing of personal data, preventing its possible transfer to third parties and safeguarding the fundamental right to the protection of personal data.” – according to the press release.

Tools for Humanity Corporation has its European establishment in Germany. This action by the Spanish regulator is conducted under Article 66.1 of the GDPR, which establishes that, in exceptional circumstances, when a supervisory authority concerned – in this case the AEPD – considers it urgent to intervene to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals, may adopt provisional measures with legal effects in its territory and with a period of validity that may not exceed three months.

In this context, the Agency considers that the adoption of the urgent measures with the effect of temporarily prohibiting the above-mentioned activities is justified to avoid potentially irreparable damage. The lack of such measures would deprive individuals of the protection to which they are entitled under the GDPR.

Mar España Martí, AEPD director, said Spain was the first European country to move against Worldcoin and that it was impelled by special concern that the company was collecting information about minors. España Martí said the Spanish agency was acting on concerns that the Worldcoin initiative did not comply with biometric data laws, which demand that users be given adequate information about how their data will be used and that they have the right to erase it.

“What we have done is raise the alarm in Europe. But this is an issue that affects . . . citizens in all the countries of the European Union,” she said. “That means there has to be co-ordinated action.”

Worldcoin, co-founded by Altman in 2019, has been offering tokens of its own cryptocurrency to people around the world, in return for their consent to have their eyes scanned by an orb. The scans are used as a form of identification as they seek to create a reliable mechanism to distinguish between humans and machines as artificial intelligence becomes more advanced.