Brazil ordered the Worldcoin cryptocurrency project to stop scanning the irises of Brazilians. The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) formally applied a preventive measure to the Tools For Humanity (TFH) company, the developer of the project, and forced it to suspend the payment of tokens in exchange for scanning the irises of Brazilians.

The order seeks to suspend the offer of cryptocurrencies or any other financial compensation for the collection of iris from interested parties in Brazil. This measure is based on a concern about the treatment of personal data, which the ANPD considers to be particularly serious. The entity also ordered TFH to indicate on its website the identification of the person responsible for the treatment of personal data.

The decision is made after the ANPD initiated investigations to analyze the treatment of biometric data in Worldcoin, now simply known as World, in November 2024.

At the time, it was determined that the payment of WLD tokens to those who are scanned "may hinder obtaining the consent of the owner of the personal data," which must be "informed, unambiguous, and provided in a specific and conspicuous manner, for specific purposes," according to that office.

In addition, the ANPD determined that the payment of WLD tokens "may interfere with the free expression of people's will, by influencing the decision on the disposition of their biometric data, especially in cases where potential vulnerability and insufficiency allow even greater weight of the offered payment".

The office considered that the processing of the data "proved to be particularly serious, considering the use of sensitive personal data and the impossibility of deleting the collected biometric data, in addition to the irreversibility of the revocation of consent".