France Joins the UK to Question Sam Altman’s Worldcoin

Days after the UK’s data regulator disclosed plans to inquire about Worldcoin, France’s privacy watchdog today (Friday) confirmed that it is investigating the project. Worldcoin, a project created by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, requires users to scan their irises in exchange for digital currencies and free cryptocurrency.

Worldcoin Raises Concern

Worldcoin (WLD), the project’s token, went live on Binance on Monday, when it was listed against Bitcoin and Tether, Finance Magnates reported. The token was created by Tools for Humanity, a company based in San Francisco and Berlin.

In order to create the identity, the firm constructs an account dubbed World ID for users after their identities are registered using an orb-shaped scanner. Furthermore, Worldcoin, which recently raised $115 million in a funding round, plans to develop the World App, a digital wallet for the token’s ecosystem to facilitate payments, purchases, and fund transfers.

However, the project, which has attracted over 2 million users across 20 countries, has raised concerns about user data privacy. The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) said the project’s data collection method ‘seems questionable’, according to Reuters. Additionally, the privacy supervisor is concerned about how biometric data collected for users are stored.

On top of that, CNIL told Reuters that it has started an investigation into the matter and has already found that the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision in Germany has been examining the project. CNIL has been supporting the Bavarian state authority in its probe.

Previously, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in its reaction to the launch of the project emphasised that companies collecting personal data must do so with the permission of their users while adhering to the law. Additionally, the British data maintained that users must have the choice to opt out of such agreements.

Alex Blania, the Co-Founder of Worldcoin, earlier justified the biometrics project, noting that the company’s World IDs were vital in differentiating humans from AI bots since only humans can receive the digital identity. Blania claimed that data privacy is guaranteed by the project through the use of blockchain technology, Reuters earlier reported.

Also weighing in on the project, Vitalik Buterin, the Co-Founder of Ethereum, in a recent blog post noted that while Worldcoin is unique as it relies on sophisticated biometrics, there are still some challenges related to the technology, including the possibility of users’ data being leaked on the internet and breach of privacy.