Worldcoin, the biometric proof-of-personhood identification protocol, has agreed to temporarily stop its operations in Spain. According to statements from the Spanish privacy watchdog AEPD, the company committed to stop its data collection practices for a year or until Baviera’s privacy regulator finishes its investigation into Worldcoin’s inner workings.
Worldcoin Agrees to Temporarily Stop Operations in Spain
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Worldcoin to Pause Biometric Data Collection Activities in Spain
Worldcoin is facing increasing opposition from privacy institutions in Spain. The AEPD, Spain’s data privacy watchdog, reported on Tuesday that it had inked an agreement with Tools For Humanity, the company behind the biometric iris-scanning protocol Worldcoin, to make the company stop its operations in Spain temporarily.
The agreement comes after the conclusion of a cautionary measure that ordered the company to pause its activities in the country for three months. Justifying this measure, the AEPD stated that it lacked information about the treatment of the data collected from Spanish citizens, mentioning the alleged inclusion of minors in the registry and that users could not withdraw the information collected.
At the time, Worldcoin appealed this resolution before the National Hearing, a high-rank tribunal in the country, arguing that the AEPD had no jurisdiction over Worldcoin given that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes that the data protection agency that can intervene is located where Worldcoin is incorporated. In Wordcoin’s case, this would be the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA).
However, the National Hearing upheld this measure, as it concluded that safeguarding the protection of the biometric data of Spanish citizens was above the protection of the company’s economic interest.
The new agreement establishes that the data collection operations will be paused for a year or until the investigation organized by the BayLDA concludes. Nonetheless, in its press release, the AEPD recognizes that since the first precautionary measure was taken, the project has introduced new functionality, including age restrictions and the possibility of removing the iris information for protocol users.
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