On 11 January 2023, the Agency for Access to Public Information (“AAIP”, after its Spanish acronym) issued a statement detailing the progress of the investigation it launched in August 2023.
About WorldCoin
Founded in 2019 (among others, by Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT), in July 2023 WorldCoin began collecting biometric data from individuals for the purpose of generating an online identity authentication system. To this end, the organization set up face and iris scanning orbs in 120 countries, including Argentina, in exchange for which the user will receive cryptocurrencies. According to its official website, three million people have registered their biometric data around the world.
The investigation carried out by the AAIP
On 7 August 2023, the AAIP launched an investigation against WorldCoin “with the aim of verifying the security measures adopted in the framework of protecting the privacy of users of the digital application“. Among other requests for information, the organization was asked to indicate what type of data is collected, conservation periods, the measures to ensure the confidentiality and security of the data, and whether it carried out an impact assessment on the devices used to collect biometric data.
Following new requests for information and responses from WorldCoin at the end of 2023, the AAIP published on 11 January 2024 a statement informing that it is in the process of determining whether the organization has duly registered its database, complied with the duty to inform the data subject, collected the necessary consent from them, among other issues established in the local legal system.
Personal data enforcement authorities in jurisdictions such as France, Germany, the UK and Kenya have launched their own investigations into the operation of WorldCoin.
