• Worldcoin was recently ordered to cease operations in Spain following reports of collecting data from minors, etc. 

• Worldcoin has, however, denied all the allegations, accusing the Spanish authorities of spreading misleading information. 

The groundbreaking appearance of Worldcoin (WLD) in the era of Artificial Intelligence is deemed as one of the best projects on the internet. Interestingly, it has been able to hit a milestone by empowering 4,069,334 people to prove their humanness online while protecting their privacy. As a secure and permissionless protocol, Worldcoin claims to have invested in the legal aspect of its operation, positioning it as a law-abiding project in all of the available locations. 

For emphasis, the project operates under the strict supervision of the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (BayLDA), a body that takes care of GDPR compliance in the whole European Union. In a blog post to explain its regulatory compliance and speculated legal hurdles in Spain, Worldcoin disclosed that it has been in touch with the BayLDA, and has frequently responded to their requests for months. According to them, they have been operating lawfully in Spain and all other areas. 

The Background of the Brouhaha Between Worldcoin and the Spanish Authorities

A couple of days ago, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) issued an order, requesting Worldcoin to temporarily cease operations. As captured in the release, Spain’s data protection agency claims to have received several complaints about Worldcoin since its operation last summer. Some of the highlighted concerns include the collection of data from minors, how the withdrawal of consent is not allowed, and the level of information about the processing the company provides.

According to the report released by the Spanish authority, the GDPR considers the processing of biometric data as having special protection and contains a high risk to people’s rights considering how sensitive they are.

Consequently, this precautionary measure is a decision based on exceptional circumstances, in which it is necessary and proportionate to adopt provisional measures aimed at the immediate cessation of this processing of personal data, preventing its possible transfer to third parties and safeguarding the fundamental right to personal data protection.

Experts have disclosed that the violation of the GDPR regime could attract a fine of up to 4% of the global annual turnover. On top of that, the unlawful processing can be demanded to stop. It is also important to note that the Spanish authority is using the “Urgency Procedure” powers contained in the European Union’s GDPR. This implies that the order can have a maximum duration of three months. Worldcoin’s legal challenge is not limited to Europe as the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently opened an investigation into its founder Sam Altman and the AI company OpenAI as reported by Crypto News Flash. 

Worldcoin’s Jannick Preiwisch Response to AEPD

In response to this, Worldcoin has in a blog post called the AEPD out, accusing them of spreading misleading and inaccurate information about its operations. 

Jannick Preiwisch, Data Protection Officer at the Worldcoin Foundation gave more explanation on this:

For over a year, we have been engaged with BayLDA, which is the lead supervisory authority under the GDPR for Worldcoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity. It is unfortunate that the Spanish data protection authority (AEPD) is circumventing established procedures under GDPR with their actions today, which are limited to Spain and not the broader EU. It is also unfortunate that they are spreading inaccurate and misleading claims about our technology globally after our efforts to provide them with an accurate view of Worldcoin and World ID have gone unanswered for months.

The native token of Worldcoin (WLD) has been affected by this development, triggering a weekly fall of 6%. The asset is trading at $7.34 and has a market cap of $1,079,198,434. Prior to this regulatory drama, the asset was enjoying a massive run at $8 according to Crypto News Flash.