São Paulo Sues Worldcoin and AWS for R$ 240 Million over Iris Scans
São Paulo prosecutors filed a lawsuit against Tools for Humanity and AWS demanding R$ 240 million over alleged abusive biometric data collection.
The São Paulo Public Ministry (MPSP) has filed a public civil action against Tools for Humanity, the developer behind the Worldcoin (World ID) digital identity project, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), demanding at least R$ 240 million ($43 million) in collective moral damages. Filed by the Capital’s Consumer Prosecutor's Office, the lawsuit alleges abusive practices in the collection of biometric iris data from more than 400,000 residents in São Paulo. Local prosecutors claim the project targeted socioeconomically vulnerable populations by offering financial rewards in cryptocurrency to scan their eyes.
The legal action stems from a final report by the São Paulo Municipal Chamber’s "Iris CPI" investigation, which concluded that the project operated in "grave non-compliance" with Brazilian consumer and data protection laws. Prosecutors are requesting an immediate judicial freeze on all collected data and metadata, alongside a suspension of new iris scans in Brazil pending a court-ordered technical audit. The prosecution also demands the permanent deletion of all previously harvested biometric data. AWS is named in the lawsuit as the cloud infrastructure provider hosting the processed biometric information.
This major regulatory action signals escalating compliance risks and potential financial liabilities for global tech infrastructure giants and decentralized digital asset projects operating in Brazil. For global investors tracking the Brazilian real forecast and the USD BRL currency pair, the lawsuit highlights the country's increasingly aggressive stance on data privacy and consumer protection. In the digital asset markets, the news comes as Bitcoin trades locally at BTC/BRL 331,581 and Ethereum stands at ETH/BRL 9,674.53, reflecting a highly active but heavily scrutinized local crypto ecosystem.