Nairobi — Worldcoin, an American cryptocurrency firm, ignored orders to cease its operations in Kenya.
Details revealed by the Office of Data Protection Management shows that the foreign firm had received cease orders revoking its certificate of registration after the government institution raised flags concerning its operations.
Appearing before the National Assembly ICT Committee, Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait told MPs that World Coin irregularly mined data from Kenyans from May 2021.
"I want to say that we did not just sit down to watch Kenyans data being misused, we did what we could under the act by asking questions, by ceasing their operations and by warning the public and also embarking on investigations," she said.
The Data Commissioner said that World Coin was issued with a letter of cease in May, 2023 but went on to carry out its data capture activities that entailed scanning irises of those who turned up for registration in exchange of crypto tokens.
A multi-agency investigation is ongoing with the conclusion of the investigation expected within 90 days involving the Direction of Criminal Investigation and other investigative agencies.
The Office of the Data Protection Management raised concerns queried monetization offered to Kenyans to lure them to consent.
"We saw it as an induced consent and in light of this we issued a warning to the country to be vigilant when consenting to give out sensitive information," Kassait stated.
Kassait mentioned that investigations done thus far has not ascertained the data of number of Kenyans whose data was captured by the World Coin Project.
"We are yet to know the number of Kenyans whose data was captured by the foreign firm. We have commenced investigations," she said.
Legal loopholes and laxity by the enforcement agencies exposed Kenyans to exploitation by the American cryptocurrency firm.
"The issue of World Coin goes beyond the office of the data commissioner and we are not passing the blame to anyone. We are saying that the current law as it is has gaps in terms of making sure a close collaboration in terms of where registration exists," Kassait noted.
Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeto tasked the Data Commissioner to explain where World Coin Project served are stored to ascertain the safety of the data captured.
"Do you think you exercised reasonable care of duty? When you say data is still in the country do you think that is true because we know how data is processed. Its real time.Can you show us the data where its stored," said Wandeto.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Mbooni MP Erastus Kivasu accused the office of data protection for giving false information concerning the status of data currently captured by World Coin.
"When you realized that world coin was in Kenya did you dig deep to understand why they came in Kenya. We were told the data captured has not left Kenya. Why are we being lied to?" he posed.
Keiyo South MP Gideon Kimaiyo added: "Why are they operating in a third world countries. How did they receive access to do it. This is a new colonialism based on data,"
Thousands of Kenyans flocked to Kenyatta International Conference Center in Nairobi to have their eyes scanned.
Worldcoin offered those who signed up 25 free tokens worth about Sh7,000, drawing thousands of people to multiple sign-up points in the capital Nairobi.
Worldcoin, set up by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, began operating in June in Germany and provides users with a private digital identity -- a "World ID" -- after they get their eye's unique iris pattern scanned.
The project, according to its founders, aims to solve one of the main challenges facing the crypto industry that largely relies on pseudonyms to operate, leaving it vulnerable to spam bots and scams.
More than 2.1 million people have signed up for Worldcoin across the world, with iris scans conducted in 34 countries, according to the company's website.
Worldcoin is now trading at $2.37, up from the initial price of $1.70, according to CoinMarketCap.
