Colombia orders World shut-down, citing biometrics compliance failures

The competition regulator of Colombia has ordered an “immediate and permanent” closure of digital identity project World over data protection law violations, less than two months after the company opened its largest brick-and-mortar store yet in the country’s capital of Bogotá.

World Foundation and Tools for Humanity have been prohibited from collecting personal information from Colombians and carrying out any personal data processing in the country. The Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio, SIC) has also ordered the firm to immediately delete sensitive personal data, codes and iris biometric templates stored in its repositories or servers.

According to September data, nearly two million users have registered with World in the Latin American country by submitting their iris biometrics through the firm’s Orb devices.

The decision was made after an investigation by the SIC’s Personal Data Protection Investigation Directorate, which concluded that World conditioned the will of data subjects by offering financial incentives without providing transparent information about the specific purposes of the processing. In addition, iris images were subjected to various forms of processing without clearly informing the data subjects, says SIC.

Overall, the authority identifies five violations of the Personal Data Protection Law, known as Law 1581 of 2012.

The company, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has been facing similar complaints from regulators around the world.

Earlier this month, the project’s San Francisco-based developer Tools for Humanity received a cease and desist order from the Philippine government. Its operations are also being examined by a parliamentary commission in Brazil.

The news, however, also comes amid increased friction between Latin American countries and President Donald Trump’s administration. In September, the U.S. government accused Bogotá of being complicit in illicit drug trade, with Trump promising to raise tariffs and stop aid to Colombia last weekend.

In its response to SIC, World argues that “the evaluation results are incomplete, as they are based on outdated policies and technologies.” The company says it does not store biometric data and that user consent is confirmed multiple times.

“World is an innovative technological development that helps protect Colombians from scams, identity theft, and fraud driven by artificial intelligence,” says the company’s statement, published by Forbes.

The company also claims that the Worldcoin token, which users can receive after sign-up, is optional and completely separate from the verification process. World is committed to collaborating with SIC on clearing up how its technology works, says the statement.

The company has also promised to appeal the decision of the Philippine National Privacy Commission (NPC) to stop collecting and processing the biometric data of Filipinos.

World emphasizes that its system processes all biometric images locally and deletes them within seconds. The network uses cryptography to analyze the images and prove that the user is human (proof-of-personhood, PoP) and has not signed up for the network previously. The process creates an anonymized user, which makes World ID a “bit of a misnomer,” according to the firm.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  Colombia  |  data collection  |  digital ID  |  iris biometrics  |  proof of personhood  |  Tools for Humanity  |  World  |  World ID