France's privacy watchdog looking into Worldcoin's 'questionable' legality: Reuters

Regulation • July 28, 2023, 8:32AM EDT
Partner offers
The Block may may earn a commission if you use our partner offers, at no extra cost to you.

Quick Take

  • France privacy watchdog CNIL initiated investigations into Worldcoin.

France's privacy watchdog, Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, stated that it is aware of Worldcoin and said that its biometric data collection "seems questionable."

"Worldcoin collected data in France, and the CNIL initiated investigations," the CNIL told Reuters in an email.

Worldcoin is a crypto project from ChatGPT founder Sam Altman that scans users' eyeballs for what it calls privacy-preserving digital identities.

Earlier this week, UK data protection regulator The Information Commissioner's Office said it would inquire into Worldcoin — which claims it complies with all laws and regulations.


© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

AUTHOR

Adam James profile picture Adam James

Adam is editor-in-chief of The Block. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor, researcher and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com as its first editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].

See More
Connect on

Editor

To contact the editor of this story: Tim Copeland at [email protected]

WHO WE ARE

The Block is a news provider that strives to be the first and final word on digital assets news, research, and data.

+ Follow us on Google News
Connect with the block on

More by Adam James