MADRID (Reuters) - Sam Altman's company Worldcoin must delete all iris scanning data collected since the start of the project that has sparked privacy concerns in several countries, Spanish data protection watchdog AEPD said on Thursday.

AEPD cited a decision earlier on Thursday by its Bavarian counterpart BayLDA, with whom the agency has cooperated on the case, that found the venture in breach of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

World, as Worldcoin has rebranded itself, has its European headquarters in the German city of Erlangen, in Bavaria.

Spain's High Court in March upheld a temporary ban on the iris-scanning venture, dismissing an appeal by Worldcoin owners.

Co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019, Worldcoin aims to create a global identity system by getting people to have their irises scanned in exchange for free cryptocurrency and a digital ID.

(This story has been corrected to clarify that the AEPD was referring to a decision by its German counterpart, not its own, and to specify that Worldcoin's European headquarters is in Bavaria)