Suzanne Smalley reports:
Brazilian data privacy regulators say they are prohibiting Tools for Humanity (TFH), a biometric identity company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, from paying citizens for iris scans.
TFH has been offering cryptocurrency to Brazilians who consent to the scans. The country’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) said on Friday that it determined such payments interfere with a person’s decision to grant consent for access to sensitive personal data.
The ANPD also added a procedural hurdle for TFH, ordering the company to “indicate on its website the identification of the person responsible for processing personal data,” according to a translation. The agency said it began its investigation in November. The ban took effect on Saturday.
TFH’s business is designed to address the fact that it will become increasingly difficult to differentiate humans from AI creations online. Using what it calls an “orb,” the company captures users’ irises and provides unique identifiers people can use to prove they are human on the internet.
Read more at The Record.