Colombia’s top consumer protection watchdog has accused the biometric cryptocurrency project Worldcoin and its company Tools for Humanity of allegedly violating the country’s personal data protection regime.

“The purpose of the proceedings is to determine whether the parties under investigation have infringed the Colombian personal data protection regime in the collection of sensitive personal data,” Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) said in a Wednesday statement.

If found guilty, the SIC may impose penalties including fines or sanctions that would suspend Worldcoin’s operations for six months, or even an “immediate and definitive closure” of operations that involve sensitive data.

The project, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, assigns “World IDs” to individuals who scan their irises on an Orb device as proof-of-personhood. Those who sign up are given cryptocurrency in the form of WLD tokens. Worldcoin has onboarded over 6.5 million people worldwide, according to its website.

Worldcoin launched in Colombia in June this year and currently operates its Orb devices in 25 locations across seven cities in Colombia, including its capital, Bogota. 

The Block reached out to Worldcoin for comment.

Such collection of human iris data has been scrutinized by regulatory agencies in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. While Worldcoin enabled users to have control over their iris data in March, Hong Kong proceeded to ban its operations in the region.

Source : The Block Crypto News - Aug 23, 2024