The controversial cryptocurrency project Worldcoin must now also stop work in Portugal. The data protection regulator has banned iris scans for 90 days. A final decision should be made by then. The immediate measure was based on dozens of complaints that Worldcoin had collected biometric data from minors without parental consent. There is a high risk to fundamental rights that justifies urgent intervention “to prevent serious or irreparable damage.” So far, more than 300,000 people in Portugal have already provided Worldcoin with biometric data, writes the Comissão Nacional de Protecção de Dados (CNPD). Worldcoin has contradicted the allegations.
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No waiting for BayLDA
The Worldcoin is a biometric cryptocurrency project that combines the Ethereum-based Layer 2 cryptocurrency “Worldcoin” with the digital ID generated by an iris scan. If you want to participate in Worldcoin, you have to sit down in person in front of an eye scanner called Orb, install a cell phone app and have your own iris scanned by the Orb. For this purpose, the project has built a biometric database. It was largely developed in Erlangen. The founders of the operating company Tools for Humanity (TFH) include OpenAI boss Sam Altman and German computer scientist Alex Blania. The concept has met with great distrust in various countries, the ban in Portugal is not the first.
In Kenya, Worldcoin was banned from working in August, and at the beginning of March the Spanish data protection supervisory authority asked Worldcoin to stop collecting personal data from participants' iris scans with immediate effect. As is now the case in Portugal, data that has already been collected may no longer be used there. Worldcoin is taking legal action against this because the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) is solely responsible for data protection reviews in the EU. The preliminary results of a key test will soon be published. Portugal has now targeted the Worldcoin Foundation, writes Reuters. They control the biometric data and are based in the Cayman Islands.
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