Police storm Worldcoin warehouse in Nairobi

Police raided a Worldcoin warehouse in Kenya’s capital Nairobi over the weekend. She confiscated several devices. This was reported on Monday by several Kenyan media.

Advertisement

According to an online report by radio station Capital FM, officers arrived at the Worldcoin warehouse armed and with a search warrant and exited the building with machines they believe contain data collected by the company. These would be evaluated by the police. The report talks about machines. These are probably the iris scanners that the cryptocurrency project uses to generate an ID from the iris scans. In return, there are Worldcoin crypto tokens for the volunteers.

Data Protection Commissioner Immaculate Kassait defended the move; the Worldcoin parent company did not disclose its true intentions during registration. Behind the US company Tools for Humanity is OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who co-founded the company. OpenAI has caused a sensation with the AI-controlled chatbot ChatgPT. Kenya’s Minister of the Interior, Kithure Kindiki, told parliament last Thursday that Tools for Humanity was not registered as a legal entity in Kenya.

Concerned Kenyan authorities are responding

The investigation comes after the Kenyan government suspended Worldcoin’s operations in the country last week, citing security concerns. Kenya has banned further iris scans. Worldcoin is no longer allowed to collect biometric data from volunteers in Kenya until further notice.

After an initial preliminary examination last week, the Kenyan Ministry of Communications reported regulatory concerns and concerns about the secure storage of sensitive biometric user data. He announced several authorities would scrutinize Worldcoin. Privacy experts feared sensitive data collected when someone’s iris was scanned could fall into the wrong hands, writes Capital FM.

The Kenya Capital Markets Authority (CMA) said it was concerned about the ongoing registration and told Kenyans that Worldcoin is not regulated in Kenya. Under Kenyan law, individuals have the right not to have their personal information unnecessarily solicited or disclosed.

Worldcoin promises cooperation

Advertisement

Worldcoin offers crypto tokens to people who agree to have their irises scanned. The cryptoasset Worldcoin combines the eponymous Ethereum-based Layer 2 cryptocurrency with a digital ID generated by an iris scan.

However, for most of Monday, August 7, thousands of Kenyan Worldcoin users were unable to access the crypto tokens earned by scanning their eyeballs. This was reported by the Kenyan online newspaper Tuko. When trying to access the tokens, users received messages asking them to try again later. The company confirmed the system failure.

On Thursday, Worldcoin said it plans to take control measures and work with Kenya’s government before resuming operations. Worldcoin explained that it chose Kenya as the first African country to launch the platform because the tech sector is already booming in the country and there are more than four million Kenyans trading cryptocurrencies. As of Tuesday, August 1, a week after Worldcoin launched in Kenya, more than 350,000 Kenyans had already registered for the cryptocurrency service, according to Tuko.

Worldcoin has already been launched in various countries including Indonesia, France, Japan, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Data regulators from some countries have announced that they will audit Worldcoin.

(noun)

Go to home page
#Police #storm #Worldcoin #warehouse #Nairobi