French regulator questions the legality of Worldcoin’s biometric data collection

France’s data privacy watchdog CNIL described the legality of Worldcoin founder Sam Altman’s biometric data collection as “questionable.” Reuters reports.

The startup announced the official launch on July 24. The project’s flagship product—the World ID protocol—is based on zero-knowledge proofs.

According to Worldcoin’s website, the project has attracted 2.1 million users over the past two years.

The startup opened registration at various locations around the world. Earlier, Altman showed a long queue in Japan of people eager to have their retinas scanned in exchange for WLD tokens.

“The legality of this collection seems questionable, as do the terms for storing biometric data,” said a representative of the regulator.

CNIL said it has opened an investigation with the cooperation of German authorities, which have jurisdiction over the startup.

The UK Information Commissionerer’s Office has also said it will examine the process of user verification by the project.