Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency initiative from American artificial intelligence company OpenAI, is reportedly operating lawfully in Kenya, according to Cabinet Secretary for ICT and Digital Economy Eliud Owalo.
Thousands of Kenyans have flocked to shopping centers and other locations where registration is being held in Nairobi for the cryptocurrency initiative that was launched last week. Over 350,000 Kenyans, according to the business, had signed up for Worldcoin by Tuesday.
Worldcoin is a process that involves scanning one’s eyeballs through an orb in exchange for a digital identification called World ID. We urge those who live close to the train line to exercise extreme caution and provide for any members of their families who may have mental health issues, Koskei said.
The Worldcoin registration procedure started last week, but despite the process raising concerns about data security, the ICT minister said on Wednesday that the government is aware of OpenAI’s operations in the nation and that the corporation requested clearance months earlier.
“This is a project that began in April. We have a full-fledged Data Commissioner’s office tasked with overseeing the protection of personal information,” said Owalo.
The Office of the Data Commissioner learned about Worldcoin in April and sent them a letter to make their intentions clear, according to Owalo, who spoke to NTV.
He emphasized that Worldcoin was not violating the Data Protection Act by scanning people’s irises for free WLD cryptocurrency tokens.
“According to information accessible to the Data Commissioner, the organization has not violated any legal provisions under the current legislative frameworks. With them, correspondence has taken place, according to Owalo.
“Although there may be security and regulatory issues with it, which we need to address, they acted legally under the Data Act.
“Before Wordcoin started operating locally, Owalo claimed that the government, through the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, met with them multiple times to discuss the potential effects of their operations on data security.
“Their justification is that they are receiving the data voluntarily from Kenyans.”
The Office of the Data Commissioner will present a thorough stance today, he continued. With time, you realize that our rules, policies, and regulations need to be strengthened because they are not static. The Data Protection Act states that a data subject has the right to access their personal information that is in the care of a data controller or data processor, to be informed of the purposes for which their data will be used, and to object to the processing of all or some of their personal information.
Additionally, a data controller or processor must obtain personal information from the data subject directly or indirectly if the information is found in a public record and the subject has knowingly made it public.
Police stopped the registration drive due to the growing craze because of security concerns. Due to what they said were security risks, the officers urged the Worldcoin team to end the practice and ejected the audience. The Nyayo or Kasarani stadiums are examples of larger venues that they advised the squad to search for.
The ODPC, which on Friday encouraged prudence when signing up for Worldcoin and cautioned against rushing to join the project due to worries over data privacy, did not stop the excitement.
“The ODPC is aware that Worldcoin has now been launched and is processing sensitive personal data in a manner that requires a demonstration of proper safeguards under the Data Protection Act, 2019,” the commission said in a statement.
Immaculate Kassait, the data commissioner, stated that the commission is evaluating Worldcoin’s methods to ensure legal compliance. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has faced harsh criticism for his project due to privacy issues.
However, the project is described as “completely private” on the company website, and data is either destroyed or preserved in encrypted form at the user’s discretion.
