A Kenyan Parliamentary committee has ordered the crypto currency Project Worldcoin to stop signing up new users,amid data privacy concerns,until more stringent laws are in place.
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Kenya’s ICT regulator, the Communication Authority, has recommended to disable Worldcoin’s physical and virtual presence including blacklisting the IP addresses of related websites. The recommendations by the team of lawmakers come after Kenya suspended Worldcoin enrollment in the country in early August over concerns about the authenticity and legality of its activities
Recommendations for the citizens of Kenya
The committee has recommended that the country needs to develop a comprehensive oversight framework and policies on virtual assets and virtual assets service providers in Kenya .The country, ranks second in Africa after Nigeria,19th globally to engage in Crypto,with 4-billion users. It saw huge sign-ups during July.
The report curbs Tools for Humanity’s plan to resume operations in Kenya soon, following an increasing global scrutiny on the company. World Coin is being scrutinized by other countries.A Kenyan parliamentary panel called on the country’s information technology regulator on Monday to shut down the operations of cryptocurrency project World Coin within the country until more stringent regulations are put in place.
In early August following privacy objections over its scanning of users’ irises in exchange for a digital ID to create a new identity and financial network,the government suspended the project.
What is Worldcoin?
Worldcoin, is founded by US tech entrepreneur Sam Altman,and offers free crypto tokens in exchange to have their eyeballs scanned.In Kenya the currency was $49. World Coin, launched with the intention of distinguishing real people from bots online by providing retinal scans for identity verification.
Sam Altmen
The company is creating the world’s largest identity and financial network as a public utility and ownership is for everyone,establishing universal access to the global economy regardless of country or background. They want to creat a financial and identity network.
Mr Altman, also the founder of Open AI which built chatbot ChatGPT, hoped that the initiative will help confirm if someone is a human or a robot.The concern is primarily of how the biometric data was stored offering money in exchange for data and having so much data in the hands of a private Company .
An investigation into Worldcoin was launched to establish its authenticity and legality,by data protection authorities.
People waited in large crowd in order to get their iris scanned in order to get some money.Worldcoin claims its system could pave the way for an AI-funded universal basic income ,but clearly how remains to be seen.
No data is stored,says the company,but Privacy experts are worried that sensitive data gathered from scanning a person’s iris might get into the wrong hands.
Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner asked for increased vigilance from the public when using Worldcoin.The Kenyan Capital Markets Authority stated was concerned about the ongoing registration,told Kenyans that the company is not registered.Citizens have a right to not have any personal data required or unnecessarily revealed, states the Kenyan Law.
