Colombian Watchdog Slams Worldcoin for Alleged Data Privacy Breaches

Key Takeaways

• Colombia’s data protection watchdog has filed charges against Tools for Humanity and the Worldcoin Foundation.
• The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce will determine the legality of the platform’s biometric data harvesting.
• Regulators in Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, and Kenya have already temporarily banned Worldcoin’s Orb initiative.

As Tools for Humanity rolls out its “Orb” iris scanners worldwide, regulators have investigated concerns over how they process people’s biometric data.

In the latest case, the Colombian Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has filed charges against Tools for Humanity and the Worldcoin Foundation for alleged violations of the country’s personal data protection regime.

Privacy Concerns

In a statement on Wednesday. Aug. 21, the SIC said the purpose of the action was to determine whether Worldcoin violated Law 1581, which governs data collection and processing in Colombia.

Similar to other data protection regulations worldwide, Law 1581 requires data processors to obtain informed consent, provide clear and transparent information to data subjects, and guarantee their right to requests and removals.

While Worldcoin claims to offer “unprecedented data privacy and security,” critics have accused the company of failing to live up to its promises.

An investigation by MIT Technology Review “revealed wide gaps between Worldcoin’s public messaging, which focused on protecting privacy, and what users experienced.” It further accused the company of using “deceptive marketing practices, [collecting] more personal data than it acknowledged, and [failing] to obtain meaningful informed consent.”

Worldcoin on the Back Foot

When Worldcoin first began operating in Colombia, the Superintendence announced that it was closely monitoring the project, “taking into account that this company is the subject of investigations and its activities have been prohibited in several countries.”

Data protection authorities in Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, and Kenya have already imposed temporary bans on the Orb initiative over similar concerns. The platform is also under investigation in Argentina, Germany, Brazil, India, and South Korea.

After announcing plans to increase the number of available Orbs to 1,500 last year, regulatory opposition has throttled Worldcoin’s growth. The project’s website currently lists just 252 locations.

Tools for Humanity Fights Back

Responding to a ban order from the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) in March, Tools for Humanity lodged a formal complaint against the regulator, claiming the ban was unlawful.

In a bid to reverse the order, the firm argued that the AEPD has no authority to restrict its operations as it is incorporated in Germany, not Spain.

“It is unfortunate that the [AEPD] is circumventing established procedures under GDPR with their actions, which are limited to Spain and not the broader EU,” Tools for Humanity said in a statement.