Bavaria’s data watchdog had not finished its privacy and security assessment of Worldcoin when the project launched, said Michael Will, president of Bavaria’s Data Protection Authority. Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman and aiming to promulgate a new way to verify that a user is human and unique on the internet, launched on July 24 without notifying the authorities and getting their approval. Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, is also monitoring the project.
Criticism has surrounded Worldcoin prior to its launch, with potential privacy issues, the reported manipulation of people in developing countries, and the fact that a private company is building global identification infrastructure being the main points of contention. The Bavarian DPA is leading the investigation, and is looking into Worldcoin’s data flows, the pseudonymization of personal data, transparency and fairness around users’ consent, and whether the iris scan data is indeed deleted, as Worldcoin claims.
The complexity of the project is a challenge, but Will is confident in the regulators’ ability to conduct an assessment. Worldcoin is expected to respond to the authorities’ latest information request by September.