It seems like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is buying iris data from whoever wants to sell it. The goal is to provide a reliable way to authenticate humans online to counter bots and fake virtual identities.
These days there are hundreds of young people who are selling their iris data in exchange for cryptocurrencies. It is made in hundreds of points around the world. Also in Catalonia, according to the WorldCoin website, in shopping centers such as La Maquinista or Las Glòries, La Farga in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Splau in Cornellà or Mataró Park.
Món a RAC1 has visited the Glòries shopping center and has been able to verify that there are queues to sell this data. There are more than a hundred people, especially young people, who have come after seeing the ads on social networks. One by one they pass by a stand and take a photo of their eyes. They are then paid with cryptocurrencies.
RAC1 has been able to speak to several participants and most of those present do not know exactly what the data will be used for. “They have given me a lot of money. They gave me 30 euros (in cryptocurrencies) and now I have 160. That in exchange for giving my iris data and my identity being within their system,” explains a young man.
Another seller explains that they don’t even ask for ID, just a QR that they receive on their cell phone. Furthermore, they do not provide them with any document certifying that they have sold this data. Now, he is not worried: “I don’t care because I think they do it so you can make movements and buy and sell in your account.”
In principle, only those over 18 years of age can sell their iris data and, in fact, at Glòries everyone is an adult. However, some parents are warning that many adolescents and also minors are doing it, with the ethical and legal debate that this generates.
In fact, France banned the activity of this company in its territory, and here, the Spanish Data Protection Agency has confirmed on the Xataka portal that it has already received several complaints related to the processing of Worldcoin data. In the month of July of last year, this company had 150,000 registered people and every month it assures that 20,000 more are added.
