If the Worldcoin project, based on iris scanning to verify the identity of users, landed in Italy, it would in all likelihood violate the EU regulation, with all the sanctioning consequences provided for by the legislation. This in summary is the warning that the Privacy Guarantor sent to the Worldcoin Foundation, which supports the project launched by the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to be able to exchange cryptocurrencies, after the initial feedback provided by the company as part of the investigation launched in recent months by the Authority.
Worldcoin has more than 1 million monthly active users, 4 million downloads and 22 million transactions. These are the official data of the platform released in November, while the attention of privacy authorities for the management of personal data is growing in several countries. The project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman encourages people to have their faces scanned by its Orb devices in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency. In Spain and Portugal there has been a stop to Worldcoin in recent weeks. British group Big Brother Watch said after the launch that there was a risk that biometric data could be hacked or exploited. French data watchdog Cnil carried out checks at Worldcoin's Paris office. And in Kenya, where the project was tested, activities were suspended in August.
Worldcoin in recent days explained that it has made significant progress in terms of transparency and security. He announced, for example, that he had made Orb's software and hardware open source. The device's data is self-guarded "to give people full control over how to use and delete it," company co-founder Alex Blania explained on X-Twitter. Worldcoin also added that it has taken additional measures to ensure that only people over the age of 18 can verify at an Orb device.
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