São Paulo's legal authorities have filed a lawsuit against Tools for Humanity, the company behind the biometric crypto project World, and Amazon AWS, its hosting service provider, seeking nearly $47 million in compensation. The suit claims over 400,000 people in São Paulo were targeted and exploited through abusive data collection practices, particularly affecting vulnerable populations.
Abuse Allegations and Legal Actions
The Consumer Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo accuses World of deliberately focusing its biometric data collection efforts in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Offering cryptocurrency rewards to incentivize participation, the company allegedly ignored a February 2025 directive by Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) to suspend such payments. Despite the order, World is said to have continued crypto payouts via in-app transactions, without fully disclosing the economic goals or risks related to data processing hosted on AWS servers.
Data Preservation and Compensation Claims
The lawsuit demands the preservation of all biometric data and metadata linked to World’s operations in São Paulo and petitions to halt any ongoing benefits tied to the data collection during legal review. Authorities estimate that about 400,000 residents submitted biometric information under these conditions. The case draws on findings from the Iris Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, which highlighted irregularities including World’s concentrated outreach in high-traffic peripheral areas, intensifying concerns about socioeconomic exploitation.
World maintains on its website that it neither collects, stores, nor sells personal data including iris scans, emphasizing anonymity for verified users. However, the ongoing legal dispute follows a precedent in Argentina where the project was fined $200,000 for breaching consumer protection laws, notably involving the participation of minors.
