A bill that seeks to regulate the activities of companies that scan the eyes of their users, like Worldcoin, has been recently introduced in Buenos Aires. The law aims to protect the app users’ rights and help them to secure and determine the destination of the biometric data collected by these entities.
Eye Scanning Bill in Buenos Aires Targets Worldcoin-Like Companies
Argentina’s capital and largest city, Buenos Aires, seeks to provide a regulatory framework for biometric eye-scanning companies, like Worldcoin, to operate in its territory. A bill that proposes to clarify the destiny of the collected biometric data and to secure the rights of the users of these apps has been introduced by Deputy Carlos Puglelli into the provincial legislature.
The province has indicted the iris-scanning decentralized ID project Worldcoin due to alleged law infringements. These include forcing users to approve abusive contracts and the uncertainty of the data treatment protocols adopted by the company. Touching on the first subject, Puglelli’s bill contemplates that service adhesion contracts should be “written in a clear and understandable manner, which under no circumstances may contain abusive clauses that contravene the legislation.”
Regarding biometric identification data, the bill establishes that to use it, app managers will “require free, express and informed consent, so under no circumstances will digital application providers be able to use said information if they do not have the materialization of the registered consent.”
Also, if the proposed bill gets passed, it would force this kind of company to register its operations as a Buenos Aires company and pay taxes in the province. In the same way, it establishes penalties for companies failing to register in a proposed biometric data registry, that will agglomerate these and maintain a record of companies involved in biometric data collection practices.
Romina Braga, another regional deputy, had already presented a bill to organize a probe into Worldcoin’s activities in Buenos Aires. Braga told local media that it is “unclear” what the company does with the eye scans. “Worldcoin does not have legal status in Argentina and is acquiring biometric data in a way where privacy is at stake,” she stressed.
