The offer of reward for obtaining biometric data and digital vulnerability: a study of the World ID Protocol in light of the General Data Protection Law

Abstract

This article examines whether the World ID protocol’s offer of financial rewards in exchange for biometric data may compromise valid consent under the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD). Through deductive reasoning, a case study, and bibliographic and documentary research, it analyzes the legal requirements for processing sensitive personal data, especially biometric identifiers, in light of informational self-determination, qualified consent, and digital vulnerability. The study argues that, although consent remains a central legal basis for data processing, its validity depends on a free, informed, specific, and unambiguous manifestation of will. In the World ID case, the payment of cryptoasset-based rewards, particularly when directed at socioeconomically vulnerable individuals, may operate as undue interference in the formation of consent. The article concludes that such practice may vitiate consent under Article 11(I) of the LGPD and highlights the need for substantive data governance, digital compliance, transparency, and ethical conduct to prevent the abusive exploitation of informational and economic asymmetries in technological environments.