Worldcoin rolls out in Guatemala, receives fine from Korea

After launching in Poland last week, Worldcoin is rolling out its iris biometrics-scanning Orb devices in Malaysia and Guatemala.

Starting this week, residents of these countries will be able to prove their humanity with an iris scan and receive their World ID digital identity and some of Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency.

Unlike many other countries where Worldcoin is facing pushback, the deployment in Malaysia comes with the government’s approval. In August, Worldcoina and its developer Tools for Humanity signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with state research and development agency Mimos Berhad and e-government services provider MyEG.

The company is framing the new Orb launches as an expansion of its proof of humanness concept which could help organizations distinguish between real users and spam bots.

Last week, Worldcoin also started piloting the face biometrics system Face Auth to authenticate its digital ID. The security feature was officially launched on Friday, providing biometric authentication within the app, rather than relying on a native device biometric or server-side processing.

Meanwhile, regulatory pressures keep piling on the Sam Altman-founded project.

On Wednesday, South Korea’s data privacy watchdog slapped several fines on the organization for collecting information such as iris scans without a legal basis for processing, failing to comply with the country’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Worldcoin was fined 725 million won (US$551,828) while Tools for Humanity received a penalty of 379 million won ($288,472), according to the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS).

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said that the company failed to inform users of the purpose of the collection and retention period and called on Worldcoin to guarantee that personal information, including iris data, would not be used for purposes other than compilation and to notify users of overseas data transfers.

“We are gratified by the PIPC’s findings, which validate our unwavering commitment to user privacy and data protection,” says Tools for Humanity’s Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran. “This outcome is the result of months of constructive dialogue and demonstrates that innovation and regulatory compliance can go hand in hand.”

As of September, more than 93,000 South Koreans downloaded Worldcoin’s World App wallet while nearly 30,000 are estimated to have scanned their irises through the Orb.

This post was updated at 10:30am Eastern on October 1, 2024 to include the comment from Tools for Humanity.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cryptocurrency  |  digital ID  |  Guatemala  |  iris biometrics  |  Malaysia  |  South Korea  |  Worldcoin  |  Worldcoin Orb