São Paulo Prosecutors Sue Worldcoin and AWS for R$ 240M

The Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP) has filed a major civil action demanding at least R$ 240 million ($43 million) in collective moral damages from Tools for Humanity, the developer of the Worldcoin (WLD) project, and Amazon AWS. The lawsuit alleges abusive practices in scanning the irises of over 400,000 people in the state of São Paulo, specifically targeting vulnerable, low-income populations in exchange for financial compensation in cryptocurrency.

The legal action stems from a local parliamentary inquiry (CPI da Íris), which concluded that the biometric harvesting operated in "grave non-compliance" with Brazilian consumer protection and data privacy laws. Prosecutors are demanding an immediate, definitive halt to iris collections linked to financial rewards, alongside the irreversible deletion of all biometric data already harvested. Amazon AWS is named in the lawsuit as the hosting provider responsible for storing the collected data.

This massive class-action lawsuit highlights escalating regulatory and data privacy risks in the Brazilian market for global tech giants and decentralized identity networks. Global fund managers tracking the Brazil ETF (EWZ) or holding Brazilian ADRs are closely watching how local courts handle biometric data liabilities. The local market is also processing these developments alongside broader crypto movements, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading at BTC/BRL 331,743 and Ethereum at ETH/BRL 9,737.38.

In response to the lawsuit, AWS stated that its terms of service require clients to comply with all applicable local laws and that it acts quickly when violations are reported. Meanwhile, Tools for Humanity has previously stated that it does not maintain a biometric database of Brazilian citizens. Investors holding Amazon Brazilian Depositary Receipts (AMZO34) and WLD tokens are monitoring the case as a potential precedent for international tech compliance in Latin America's largest economy.