Brazil has joined Spain and Germany in obstructing Sam Altman’s controversial world project. The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) has suspended the services of the World Project within the country. A notice about development was issued to Altman’s tech firm tools for humanity (TFH) in the weekend, which is the world of parents. In November 2024, Brazil launched an investigation on Altman’s crypt company to analyze how it processes the iris-scan of people who sign up.
World Project, Back to 2023, when it was called WorldCoin, Said It was starting a program which was given a program called World Cooine Grants, which used to give a recurring stipend to the verified world ID holders in eligible countries. To claim these awards, users have to download the world app.
Brazilian officials reported these financial offerings along with the iris-scanning process of the project for biometric verification to start an inquiry into their operations.
Explaining your decision to suspend the project, ANPD Said“In a preventive analysis, the general coordination of inspection understood that by offering monetary compensation by the company through offering cryptocurrency, there may be damage to obtaining consent from personal data holder.”
The World Project was considered to serve as a way to eliminate the need of individuals to share personal details with web protocols to interact online by offering world IDs. The project claims that this is a proof of the ‘World ID’ personality that separates real humans from the bot on the web.
During his investigation, the general coordination of Brazil’s inspection noted that the monetary benefits of sign up to the project could play an impressive role to scan their eyes as biometric requirement for the project. In addition, it was also found that it is probably impossible to eradicate this biometric data collected by the World Project and those who sign up do not have the option to cancel their consent. These factors also added Brazil’s decision to suspend project services in the country.
“Monetary thoughts introduced by the company can interfere with the free expression of the individual’s will, affecting the decision on the provision of their biometric data, especially in cases where the weight of potential vulnerability and insufficiency payment and Also provides more, “ANPD explained.
Neither Altman nor TFH has yet responded to development.
In December, regulators in Spain and Germany directed the project to remove the iris scan of users collected in both countries. Whether or not Altman’s firm follows direction is not clear. Earlier, Hong Kong also blocked the project in May, citing privacy concerns.
Initially a project called World Cooine was re -designed to the world in October 2024.
