Key Insights
- Colombia’s watchdog SIC has launched an investigation into Worldcoin and Tools for Humanity for potential violations of the country’s personal data protection laws.
- Worldcoin, which has been operating in Colombia since June 2024 with 25 locations across seven cities, could face penalties including fines, suspension of operations, or closure if found guilty.
BOGOTA (MarketsXplora) – Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), the country’s top consumer protection watchdog, has launched an investigation into the biometric cryptocurrency project Worldcoin and its parent company Tools for Humanity, alleging potential violations of Colombia’s personal data protection laws.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the SIC said,
“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.”
Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has been operating in Colombia since June this year, with 25 locations across seven cities, including the capital Bogota. The project assigns “World IDs” to individuals who scan their irises on an Orb device as proof-of-personhood, rewarding participants with WLD tokens.
If found guilty of violating data protection laws, Worldcoin could face significant penalties. These may include fines, a six-month suspension of operations, or even an “immediate and definitive closure” of activities involving sensitive data collection.
Read also! What Could Go Wrong with Worldcoin?
The investigation comes amid growing global scrutiny of Worldcoin’s practices. Despite the project’s claim of having onboarded over 6.5 million people worldwide and enabling users to have control over their iris data since March, regulatory concerns persist. Hong Kong, for instance, has already banned Worldcoin’s operations in its jurisdiction.