- The government of Kenya has suspended Worldcoin’s activities in the country.
- Government agencies are probing the cryptocurrency startup over privacy and security.
- Worldcoin was previously under scrutiny from regulators in France and Germany.
Kenya has become the latest country to scrutinize Worldcoin, the ambitious cryptocurrency project recently launched by ChatGPT founder Sam Altman. The government of Kenya has shut down Worldcoin’s activities in the country due to concerns over privacy and security. The project’s controversial biometric scans caused the government’s intervention.
According to a press release posted on Kenya’s Ministry of Interior and National Administration’s official Facebook page, the government has expressed concerns over Worldcoin’s registration of Kenyan citizens through iris data (biometric scan). To that end, the government has suspended the crypto startup’s local activities.
Various government agencies, including security, financial services, and data protection, have initiated investigations and inquiries into Worldcoin’s operations in order to determine their legality and authenticity in the interest of citizens’ privacy and safety. The government also sought information about the intended use of biometric data harvested from the citizens.
Wolrdcoin’s activities in Kenya will remain suspended until the government ascertains the absence of risk to the public. In the meantime, the Interior Ministry has warned of legal action against any associated parties that attempt to continue Worldcoin’s activities. “It will be critical that assurances of public safety and the integrity of the financial transactions involving such a large number of citizens be satisfactorily provided upfront,” the Interior Ministry stated.
Kenya’s decision to suspend Worldcoin’s operations had no visible impact on its native token WLD. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $2.41, up more than 4% over the past 24 hours.
Worldcoin previously came under fire in Europe for similar privacy and security concerns. Last week, France’s privacy regulator CNIL questioned the legality of the crypto startup’s biometric data collection. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision in Germany has reportedly been looking into Worldcoin’s activities since November last year.
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