MADRID (Reuters) – Sam Altman’s company Worldcoin must delete all iris scan data collected since the start of the project that has raised privacy concerns in several countries, Spanish data protection watchdog AEPD said on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, AEPD cited a decision by its Bavarian counterpart BayLDA, with whom the agency worked in the case, that found the company in violation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
World, as Worldcoin has rebranded itself, has its European headquarters in the German city of Erlangen, Bavaria.
Spain’s Supreme Court upheld a temporary ban on the iris scanning company in March, rejecting an appeal by Worldcoin owners.
Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019, aims to create a global identity system by letting people scan their irises in exchange for free cryptocurrency and a digital ID.
(This story has been corrected to clarify that the AEPD was referring to a decision of its German counterpart, not its own, and to specify that Worldcoin’s European headquarters are in Bavaria)
