worldcoin, the business adventure was launched in 2019 by several partners, including Sam Altmanwith the intention of providing a different approach to a market as complicated as the cryptocurrency market, is currently in a state that I think is perfectly defined by one of my favorite weather forecast phrases: “clouds and clearings, occasional showers”, i.e. a good, regular and bad (and that each person assigns these states to each of the options, according to their preferences).

Tools for Humanity (that’s the name of the company under which this initiative was created), like practically every company in the field, Worldcoin It also has its own digital asset, of the same name, which is currently trading around seven dollars. It did not achieve much relevance, but it benefited from the public image of Sam Altman, who, as you well know, is also the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. This is common in this sector, in which the public importance of certain numbers is usually a very valuable asset when it comes to raising the profile of new projects.

However, it is not because of their cryptocurrency that Tools for Humanity and Worldcoin have gained so much prominence recently. The reason for this huge popularity can be found in World ID, an ambitious and controversial plan with which the company intends to create a new global identification system in response to the security problems of the currently used authentication systems. Its plans for its users also include creating a sort of universal basic income based on its cryptocurrency, and at the epicenter of it all, the company asks users to scan their irises to use as a unique identifier, something users are compensated for.

Anyone with a bit of a privacy concern shuddered to read that last point, handing over a biometric identifier to a tech company, especially since Worldcoin isn’t clear enough when it comes to explaining what it does. those assets and how you deal with them. And the Spanish regulator decided to take matters into its own hands because, as we read in the official statement, The AEPD has ordered a preliminary injunction preventing Worldcoin from processing personal data in Spain.

Spain’s data protection authority says it has received several complaints, including the aforementioned lack of transparency, the inability to revoke consent to the use of assets, and the collection of data from minors. As a result, Worldcoin was obliged to stop the collection and processing of said data, as well as to block previously existing data. A measure that is preventive and urgent, provides a period of 72 hours.

However, this measure has a relatively limited duration, three months from its implementation, although it is true that the agency is considering it This should only be the first step of coordinated action by all member states of the European Union, including Germany, which is the country where Tools for Humanity’s European headquarters is located, a challenge that seems likely to be answered by state and community regulators.