German privacy watchdog has been looking into OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project due to concerns over its extensive processing of private biometric data since late last year.
As part of efforts to establish a new “identity and financial network,” Worldcoin, which started last week, asks users to submit iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and, in some countries, free bitcoin.
Michael Will, the president of the state regulator in a statement to Reuters on Friday stated that the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision began looking into Worldcoin in November 2022 due to worries that the project seeks to process “sensitive data at a very large scale” using new technology.
“These technologies are at first sight neither established nor well analysed for the specific core purpose of the processing in the field of transferring financial information,” Will said.
The Cayman Islands-based Worldcoin stated that it complies with EU regulations and will continue to work with governing bodies when they ask for details about its privacy and data protection policies.
People have been having their faces scanned by a shiny, spherical “orb” at sign-up sites all across the world, notably in France, Germany, and Spain, since the project’s inception.
According to Worldcoin, 2.1 million people have registered, mainly during a trial period over the last two years.
