Sam Altman’s World is ordered by a court to delete Kenyan users’ data and cease operations in the country

The project was suspended by the local regulator back in August 2023

06.05.2025 - 11:00

151

3 min

What’s new? A Kenyan court has ruled that the activities of the World Foundation (formerly Worldcoin) of OpenAI head Sam Altman violated the right to privacy. The court ordered the project to permanently delete users’ biometric data, including facial images and iris scans, within seven days under the supervision of a data protection officer, said the court-initiated organizations Katiba Institute and ICJ Kenya.

Source: X.com

What else is known? The judge also issued an order further prohibiting World from collecting or processing any biometric data in Kenya.

“The judgment rightly underscores that even in the digital age, constitutional rights especially the right to privacy under Article 31 of the Constitution must be upheld,” said ICJ Kenya.

Source: X.com

Kenya was once one of World’s largest markets, with hundreds of thousands of users registering here before the project was suspended by local authorities in August 2023. In June 2024, the project announced plans to resume operations as police investigations came to an end.

World’s launches in other countries have often raised concerns about privacy and data protection. Last week, Indonesia’s regulator suspended World’s authorization to operate due to alleged electronic systems violations.

Brazil regulator bans World Network from collecting citizens’ personal data

Bavaria’s regulator had previously ordered the project to develop a data deletion protocol by the end of January

At the same time, the project announced expansion in the United States, initially launching in six cities, Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco.

To join the Worldcoin project, users must undergo an iris scan with an Orb device at one of the physical locations around the world. After that, the user is assigned a kind of digital passport using the World ID protocol and given a few WLD native tokens as a gift.

Against the background of the latest news, the asset lost 7,5% in a day, the weekly drop amounted to 24%. WLD ranks 79th in the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization ranking with a market cap of $1,2 billion and is trading at $0,8813.

Author: