Sam Altman's company Worldcoin must delete all iris scanning data collected since the start of the project that has sparked privacy concerns in several countries, Spanish data protection watchdog AEPD said on Thursday.

Bavaria's data regulator has directed Worldcoin to establish a GDPR-compliant data deletion protocol by January's end.

Worldcoin has been ordered by Spain and Germany to delete all iris-scanning data, raising questions about privacy and legal compliance under GDPR.

MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish data protection watchdog AEPD on Thursday ordered that Sam Altman's company Worldcoin delete all iris scanning data it had collected in the country in the latest blow to a project that has sparked privacy concerns in several countries.

Worldcoin faces GDPR violations as German regulators order the deletion of non-compliant data, emphasizing data protection standards.

German data watchdog BayLDA has ordered the World Foundation to delete illegally collected data, with the foundation firing back by asking for a definition of anonymization.

Worldcoin, a digital identity project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is under regulatory scrutiny in Germany for its handling of biometric data. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) has concluded its investigation into the project,

The Spanish data protection watchdog has ordered Sam Altman’s World to delete all its iris scanning data. World has been the target of constant criticism