By Legal and Data Protection Team
South-End Tech Limited
The craze for World coin launched on Monday 24 July 2024 has hit Kenyans. World Coin requires users to provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and certain countries’ free cryptocurrency equivalent to Kshs. 7700 (US $ 55). Its website says it has signed up 2.1 million people, mostly in a trial over the last two years.
The central aspect of the project is its World ID, touted as a global digital passport capable of proving uniqueness and humanness while selectively revealing credentials issued by other entities while maintaining anonymity. To obtain a World ID, individuals must undergo an in-person iris scan using an orb, a biometric imaging device. A unique World ID is generated upon successful authentication through the iris scan.
Additionally, the project offers a digital currency called the World Coin token (WLD) that is freely distributed to individuals possessing the World ID and the World App. This token facilitates global payments, purchases, and transfers using digital assets and fiat-bastablecoinscoins.
Long queues have been witnessed in Nairobi in estates and towns that culminated in long winding queues at the KICC Kenya, the premier conferencing center at the CBD in Nairobi. Over 350,000 Kenyans have signed up for World Coin, the new cryptocurrency by American Artificial Intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, the company said Tuesday, August 1, 2023
A consultant with World Coin told Citizen Digital that 350,000 Kenyans had, as of Tuesday, August 1, 2023, gotten their eyeballs scanned in the crypto uptake. As Kenyans rush to get enrolled in the World Coin craze, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in Kenya has issued a warning to Kenyans to be vigilant about their data privacy as they deal with World Coin.
France’s privacy watchdog CNIL – Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés said on Friday, July 28, 2023, it is aware of ChatGPT-founder Sam Altman’s World Coin project and that the legality of its biometric data collection “seems questionable.”
As World Coin goes around setting up sign-up sites in various locations around the world, where people can get their faces scanned by a shiny spherical “orb”.
As Kenyans join the Go for the World Coin “gold rush”, fundamental questions they should ask include.
- How safe is your data with World Coin?
- What is so special about the global digital world unique digital identity championed by the World?.
- What is the level of adherence of World Coin to the data protection principles in Kenya considering they are collecting a special category of sensitive personal data?
- How did the Kenyan government allow a private company to collect and build such a powerful collection of Kenyans’ sensitive personal data?
- Last but not least, who has access to this massive and important data being collected? and who owns it?
For any questions or concerns regarding this engagement, please do not hesitate to contact us on the telephone at +254115867309 +254721864169; +254115867309; or by email: info@southendtech.co.ke or nkimemia@southendtech.co.ke
