On Monday, law enforcement agencies in Kenya raided a warehouse in Nairobi belonging to Worldcoin over the weekend. The police officers went to the offices along Mombasa Road, armed with a search warrant, carting away documents and machines for investigative purposes.
A Push Towards Strictness Amid Suspension
As a recall, the Kenyan government ordered the suspension of all activities related to Worldcoinâs registration and distribution of their native token, WLD, less than two weeks after the projectâs launch. After an order from the National Assembly, relevant agencies began investigating the legality and authenticity of the projectâs launch.
Worldcoin was launched in July as a decentralized identification project to differentiate humans from artificial intelligence (AI) bots. Using a proof-of-person concept, the project claims to preserve privacy while combating income inequality.
The most quoted controversy around the project has been the need to scan users to prove their humanity online by scanning their irises through a biometric verification device, Orb. They would then receive free WLD tokens.
However, privacy watchdogs worldwide have expressed concerns over Worldcoinâs biometric data collection through iris scans.
The raid, reported to have happened on the weekend, was reportedly conducted under the supervision of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. The process involved officers from different agencies confiscating documents and machines that are believed to be associated with the crypto projectâs biometric data collection.
Kenyaâs Directorate of Criminal Investigations is analyzing the confiscated data.
Furthermore, from a report read by the Ministry of Interior and National Administration in Parliament on Thursday, Worldcoin is registered by the ODPC to operate in the country. However, according to Immaculate Kassait, the Data Protection Commissioner accused Tools for Humanity, Worldcoinâs parent company, of failing to disclose its true intentions during its registration in April.
It’ll be interesting to see how this craze will be at the end. Stay tuned for more on this.
