They have traveled from Terrassa to a department store in Glòries, Barcelona, ??with a clear objective. Let them scan your irises (they say it’s like facial recognition) in exchange for receiving a handful of euros in a new cryptocurrency. The one who stands as the leader of the group (there are 4 of them and they claim to be 18 years old) opens an application on his mobile phone and shows his first earnings in this shameless marketing of biometric data. He already accumulates 96 euros.
“And this doesn’t stop going up, at the moment I don’t touch that money that is going to multiply,” he stated this Monday in line at those Glòries stores. Two of the young people accompanying the leader are new to this experience. “I have convinced them, because they give me 7 euros (this is the price at which each unit of that cryptocurrency went on Monday) for each person you bring them.”
This is what has been happening throughout Spain and half the world for a few months now with the launch of Worldcoin, a company that collects and creates its own biometric bank with the now more precise and precious passport or fingerprint: the iris of the eye. There would already be more than 3 million scans performed (around 300,000 in Spain). In some countries, such as India or France, this project has already been stopped.
A campaign that seems to move in legal limbo. The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) confirms to La Vanguardia that it has already received 4 complaints for this activity. They do not give more details. “They are being analyzed,” it is reported from that office.
Tools for Humanity is the company behind Worldcoin. This platform has created its own cryptocurrency and to attract customers – that would not be illegal – it gives away several of those coins (yesterday it was trading at 7.30 euros) to its new investors. What is controversial, or at least illegal, is that this money is paid in exchange for the new client allowing their iris to be scanned.
Behind this controversial project is Sam Altman, creator of ChatGPT. La Vanguardia has been trying to contact the operations center that this company would have in Barcelona for two days – from that city this campaign would be controlled for all of Europe – without receiving a response.
Although Worldcoin has been deploying its large glass eyes (Orbs) to scan irises in large shopping centers for months now, this company has been working with relative calm as few have so far repaired or questioned the fate of these biometric data.
The majority of people seen in the long queues at these scanning points are young people. And they don’t seem to care too much about what that company will do with the reading of your iris, today the most reliable fingerprint of all.
“What if we would be here if they didn’t pay us? Of course not!”, respond the teenagers from Terrassa. “What if we’re worried about putting our face in that glass eye? Well the truth is that no, we are always under surveillance. I think this is like facial recognition and if they pay, then let’s go and that’s it. We don’t have to be so afraid,” these young people reiterate.
The tone of this controversy has risen, however, several degrees in recent hours as different information spread that reveals the presence of minors in those long lines. And that – there is no doubt here – would be illegal. The leader of the Terrassa group, with experience on the subject due to his repeated visits to the scanning points, affirms without hesitation that he has seen many minors in those queues.
This week a mother published a message on And yesterday, Toni, mother of another minor under 17 years old, told Jordi Basté in El món a RAC1 that her son had told her that he did the same thing at one of those points set up in La Maquinista. This will be reportable, indicate judicial sources who are experts in data protection.
Adolescents, the majority customers at those scanning points called Orb, get their information through the networks. The young people of Terrassa explain that everything is relatively simple. First you have to download an application and leave several personal information and a phone number there. It asks if the user is of legal age and just click yes. Then a QR appears with which you go to the nearest Worldcoin post and bring your phone closer to the glass eye. He looks at that device and at home.
“After about 8 hours the first admission arrives,” these teenagers reveal. You are already a customer of that cryptocurrency wallet. You can buy more or sell and also wait, “which will result in more free coins.” And for each person who reaches a point, when you are already a member of the club, a new cash prize.
In that fine print, Worldcoin ensures that it takes all measures to prevent leaks of these biometric data. But if that iris print were stolen, no one can now predict what could be done with that information. It is clear that this is not a password, which can be changed if someone discovers it. The iris is unique and irreplaceable. So the risks of a leak of that data multiply and that information remains housed for life in the company that collected it. It would not be valid, experts on the subject agree, to agree that this information be deleted when it has already been used. Almost no one believes that.
When this form is completed when downloading the application, in addition to data consent, two options would be offered: enable or not enable the custody of this information. If enabled, that data will be deleted, it is claimed, once the iris code has been created.
But if the custody of that information is not enabled (very few notice this), the user accepts that this information can be transferred to the computers that Worldcoin has throughout the world. And to encourage the user to opt for this option, they are told that this will guarantee they will not have to go through an Orb again if algorithms have to be updated.