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The next few weeks could be pivotal for Worldcoin<\/a>, the controversial eyeball-scanning crypto venture co-founded by OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, whose operations remain almost entirely shuttered in the European Union following a series of privacy complaints \u2014 including in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain.<\/p>\n The only EU market where Worldcoin is still scanning eyeballs according to the Worldcoin.org website<\/a> is Germany, where its developer Tools for Humanity (TfH) has a local office. But that could change imminently depending on the outcome of an investigation instigated by Bavaria\u2019s data protection authority.<\/p>\n The authority told TechCrunch it expects to reach a decision on the probe soon \u2014 a spokesman suggested it will be ready to publish its conclusions in mid July. The watchdog began looking into Worldcoin last year following its global launch in July 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking into account further steps to align with other SA\u2019s [supervisory authorities] I currently expect results that we are able to use in public in mid July 2024,\u201d he told us.<\/p>\n In the EU, complaints have been raised that Worldcoin is breaching the bloc\u2019s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which sets rules for how personal data may be processed. The regime not only gives supervisory authorities, aka data protection authorities (DPAs), powers to issue fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for confirmed breaches. They can also order non-compliant processing to stop.<\/p>\n That\u2019s important because in the case of a crypto-biometrics project like Worldcoin \u2014 which turns a person\u2019s eyeball scan into an immutable identity token stored on a decentralized blockchain \u2014 it may mean setting conditions that essentially bar it from the EU for good. Unless Worldcoin is able to revise its system to allow for personal data to be deleted on request. But, er, blockchains don\u2019t typically work like that.<\/p>\n Other GDPR concerns attached to Worldcoin include the legal basis it claims for processing people\u2019s sensitive biometric data for its identification purpose; and whether it\u2019s meeting the regulation\u2019s transparency and fairness requirements. <\/p>\n A key criticism of its approach is that it incentivizes people to hand over their sensitive biometric data in exchange for the eponymous cryptocurrency baked into the proof of \u201chumanness\u201d identity system it\u2019s devised \u2014 whereas the GDPR requires consent to data processing to be freely given. <\/p>\n Fears that Worldcoin is posing risks to children have also driven some EU regulators to slap temporary bans on its operations in their own markets this year, after complaints Worldcoin operators had scanned minors\u2019 eyeballs. <\/p>\n Back in March<\/a> Spain\u2019s data protection authority (DPA) took such emergency action \u2014 ordering Worldcoin to stop collecting and processing locals\u2019 data for up to three months. It said it was acting on a number of privacy complaints including about risks to children\u2019s information. The move was quickly followed by a similar order by Portugal\u2019s DPA<\/a> also acting on complaints Worldcoin had scanned minors\u2019 eyeballs.<\/p>\n Despite these urgent interventions, German privacy regulators have allowed Worldcoin to continue scanning eyeballs in the market while the Bavarian DPA investigates. Although the below image of a Worldcoin scanning location in Berlin \u2014 embedded in a post on X<\/a> \u2014 is notable for including a prominent poster in the window displaying an 18+ age limit for submitting irises to the orb.<\/p>\n