France and Germany Regulators Question Worldcoin’s Approach

The statement conveyed by French privacy regulator CNIL indicated joining other European watchdogs to question the legality of Worldcoin’s approach. It joined German regulatory authorities to investigate the controversies surrounding the crypto project linked to OpenAI’s Sam Altman. 

France and Germany Confirm Inquiries into Worldcoin Project

The move by the European regulators to open inquiries into Worldcoin comes at a time when Worldcoin is pursuing an ambitious drive towards human-only networks. The project involves scanning the irises of individuals and assigning them digital passports. The project targets to leverage the World IDs as artificial intelligence gains influence, making it critical for humans to prove they are not robots. 

The CNIL illustrated that the watchdog would open investigations on the legality of conducting the data collection in France. The French privacy regulator portrays the collection process as harboring illegality alongside the storing of biometric data. 

CNIL officials indicated that the agency would coordinate the investigations with the Bavarian state authority. The latter questions the legality of conducting the iris scanning in Germany. 

The move by German and French authorities mirrors the inquiries confirmed on Tuesday, July 25. It cited Worldcoin’s potential violation of the laws governing data collection. The Britain authority indicated that organizations must conduct Data Protection Impact Assessment before collecting high-risk information. 

Buterik Questions Worldcoin Sutiability for Use in Proof of Persons

The move by the regulators across the Europe bloc to open inquiries into the legality of the Worldcoin project echoes the concerns raised by crypto scape heavyweights. Competition aside, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin sounded the alarm in a Monday, July 24 critique of the Altman-led initiative. He warned that Worldcoin suffers from major issues. In particular, he considered that scanning the iris could expose the individual’s sex, ethnicity, and, inadvertently, medical conditions.

While Buterin acknowledges that perfect solutions are nonexistent, he indicates that Worlcoin suffers centralization and security besides privacy. He observed that scanning one’s iris could allow Worldcoin to harvest more information than desired. 

Buterin dismissed the security profiled by Worldcoin on the Orbs. He argued that no one has verified the correctness of Orbs and whether they lack backdoors. Also, the Ethereum co-founder confessed that the Worldcoin Foundation could still insert the backdoor into its system to allow arbitral creation of fake human identities. 

Lastly, Buterin questioned the security of having all individuals have World IDs. He indicated that users’ phones are susceptible to hacking, which would see the perpetrators coerce owners to surrender their iris scans. 

Academic Peete Howson regrets that continued data breaches often hurt the victims. The author lamented the leaking of biometric data particularly regularly. Such instances often leave the people as victims, particularly within the poor countries where Worldcoin dominates. 

Worldcoin Project Termed Unrealistic Citing Scarcity of Iris Scanners

Worldcoin is unmoved by the regulatory checks and instead revealed the availability of the Orbs being the hardware scanning the iris. The company indicated that Orb is available in France at 11 Rue de l’École Polytechnique, 75005 Paris. Also, the hardware is available in Germany at two locations: Allee am Röthelheimpark 41, 91052 Erlangen, and Grunerstraße 20, 10179 Berlin.

Worldcoin is defying the regulatory pushback, with Altman indicating the hardware locations are attracting crazy queues worldwide. The OpenAI chief executive indicated that Orb verifies one person every eight seconds. 

The statement by OpenAi’s chief attracted criticism since it suggests the existing hardware would take decades to realize mass adoption. Buterin lamented the scarcity of Orb devices, making it difficult for all individuals to access World IDs. Considering that the verifications would sustain the current rate, Worldcoin could only register 19 million individuals in five years. 

Worldcoin dismissed the criticism levied against the project as unfeasible by confirming plans to increase the Orbs numbers across major cities substantially. Altman indicated that he targets five times the capacity for registering the digital passports by December 2023. 

Worldcoin Confirms Compliance with Privacy and Data Protection Regulations

Worldcoin Foundation addressed the privacy concerns by suggesting that its operations are guided by the laws and regulations that govern personal data processing. It indicated that it complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guiding privacy handling in the European Union and the UK Data Protection Act. 

Worldcoin indicated on Friday, July 28, its readiness to cooperate with the regulators and authorities requesting clarity concerning its data protection and privacy handling practices. It cited the involvement of top-tier law firms within the UK to conduct a detailed Data Protection Impact Assessment. It revealed that it would timely process requests to delete personal data by the concerned individuals.  

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