Worldcoin's Spain ban extended to end of 2024, or until GDPR audit complete

Worldcoin WLD -0.54% is suspending its activities in Spain through the end of this year, or until the German organization in charge of overseeing the project's activity under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) completes its audit, according to a statement.

"Tools for Humanity, a Worldcoin contributor, voluntarily offered to extend the pause of Worldcoin orb operations in Spain," the statement also said . 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-created Tools for Humanity, the main proponent of the Worldcoin project which endeavors to establish a system where people can prove their humanity. People who signup to the project receive cryptocurrency in the form of WLD tokens as an incentive to have their eyeballs scanned by a Worldcoin orb in order to create a World ID, which establishes their personhood, or "humanness."

Having humans create digital identities that will help identify them from online agents powered by artificial intelligence is seen as paramount by companies like Tools for Humanity, which expect future iterations of the internet will be heavily populated by AI actors, or bots. 

Several government agencies have scrutinized the Worldcoin project due to concerns related to the protection of personal data. 

The Spanish Data Protection Agency, or AEPD, initially ordered Worldcoin to cease operations in Spain back in March . The agency issued a statement on Tuesday outlining its position on Worldcoin's continued suspension.

Tools for Humanity "has now made a legally binding commitment not to resume its activity in Spain until the end of the year or, if applicable, until the BayLDA, adopts a final resolution in relation to the data processing carried out by the company," said the AEPD . 

The BayLDA, or the data protection authority of Bavaria, Germany, "is the main authority regarding data processing ... as established by the GDPR," the AEPD also said.

Taking measures to address concerns

Tools for Humanity has been cooperating with the BayLDA for over a year, the company said in its statement. Additionally, in recent months, Tools for Humanity has taken measures to assure data privacy advocates that Worldcoin takes the protection of people's biometric data seriously. 

In March, Worldcoin rolled out "Personal Custody," an initiative that prohibits new signups from requesting to have their biometric data stored and encrypted. Then the project announced that people who had previously signed up could request Worldcoin to delete the numeric “iris code” created when their eyeballs were scanned. Worldcoin also implemented a measure to prevent people under the age of 18 from signing up.

"While it is encouraging that, in a recent survey of World ID users in Spain, more than 80% of the 21,000 respondents said they believe technologies like World ID are important to distinguish between bots and humans online, and nearly 90% of them support the project’s return to Spain, we voluntarily offered to extend pausing orb operations in the country,” Tools for Humanity's Chief Legal Officer Thomas Scott said in a statement.