Worldcoin accused of buying irises from homeless people in Colombia, violating their data

Colombian authorities have filed charges against the US cryptocurrency company Worldcoin for breaching data protection laws after it emerged that it was paying homeless people less than $10 in cryptocurrency to scan their irises.

The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce of Colombia (SIC), which is responsible for protecting consumer rights, said in a statement that it intends to determine whether the company infringes through its activity the collection of “sensitive personal data”, the Colombian data protection regime.

The controversy broke out in the city of Bucaramangawhere the foreign company is buying the irises of people who live on the street, foreigners and people with few resources. 40,000 pesos (about US$ 9.8)according to several testimonies collected in the local press.

Payments are also made through cryptocurrencies.

Users go to the company’s different stores to have their iris scanned using the ‘orb’ system, a biometric device developed by the company itself, which owns WorldcoinTools for Humanity, which scans irises at high resolution to determine whether a person is alive, of legal age, and other aspects of personality, to ensure that users are real people.

The company is also operating in Bogotá, Medellín and Cúcuta, but the money offered varies depending on the city.

If the charges are proven, the company will have to pay a fine, in addition to ceasing its activity for six months and temporarily closing its premises if after this period of suspension the appropriate data protection measures have not been adopted.

The company began its activity in Colombia on May 30 of this year with a launch that went viral on social media due to videos of lines of people waiting to register their iris.

The aim of the project, according to the company, is to gather biometric data to create a unique digital identity worldwide that will be used to verify people’s virtual identity on the Internet and prevent false identities.

International controversy

This is not the first time the company has been accused of violating data protection.

Last March, the company faced an injunction in Spain, where the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) ordered it to cease the collection and processing of personal data that it was carrying out in Spain within the framework of this international project.

The company, however, claimed that its technology was secure, but pledged to pause its activity in Spain until data protection authorities issued a ruling on the matter.

It has also sparked controversy in other countries such as Portugal, France, Kenya and Argentina, which have opened investigations against the company or even ordered it to cease its activity.

The Tools For Humanity Corporation company was founded by, among others, Sam Altman, director of the artificial intelligence system ChatGPT, developed by the American company OpenAI, and has its main offices in San Francisco and Germany.