Since Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project started last week, privacy officials in numerous nations have been keeping an eye on it, but Kenya has now officially suspended it.
Worldcoin is a very elaborate plan with many components. The ultimate goal is to develop a method for people to demonstrate that they are real people, not artificial intelligence. In order to accomplish this, Worldcoin is attempting to persuade individuals to submit to eye scanning by providing them with a new cryptocurrency called WLD, which it has said may also “show a potential path for A.I.-funded universal basic income” (UBI) once A.I. eliminates many occupations. (Those who sign up in the United States at this time are not eligible for the token.)
At least 18 of Worldcoin’s iris-scanning sites—the scanners are called Orbs—were located in Kenya during the first round of the project. Approximately 350,000 Kenyans have now signed up, collecting 25 WLD each, according to Reuters. But this morning, Kenya’s interior ministry banned all Worldcoin activities in the nation until its authorities determined whether there are threats to the general population. The agencies are investigating the consequences for data protection and “how the harvesters intend to use the data.
Out of an excess of caution and in an effort to reduce crowd volume, Worldcoin said in a statement that it had suspended verification services in Kenya. Worldcoin said it would utilize the break to collaborate with local officials to better understand the privacy safeguards and obligations Worldcoin employs. There is absolutely no indication that the operation is slowing down in general.
The company that created Worldcoin, Tools for Humanity, said it would roll out to any region of the world that will accept us, according to Ricardo Macieira, the general manager for Europe. In addition, he described Worldcoin as a “infrastructure” that third parties might utilize, citing the example of a coffee shop that could use the system to check that customers aren’t claiming an excessive number of free coffees under an offer for one free coffee.
According to Macieira, he doesn’t believe that they will be producing universal basic income. They would however be very glad, if they could build the infrastructure that would enable governments or other entities to do so.
They are skeptical of the Governments’ desire to cooperate in this effort. It’s possible that regulators looking into Worldcoin’s potential consequences for data protection, like the German privacy authority and its Kenyan counterpart, may uncover some sort of deal-breaker, most likely involving the biometric data that Orbs are collecting.
On the one hand, Worldcoin credibly states that it does not store any biometric information; rather, it only saves “a numerical representation of the texture of a person’s iris” that cannot be reverse-engineered to reveal the original image after processing an individual’s iris image within the Orb. But biometric data is still being collected, and both Kenyan and EU privacy regulations have stringent restrictions on it. Such sensitive data may only be collected and handled in accordance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which has been provided clear, informed user consent. Because of the length of both Worldcoin’s permission form and privacy notice, as well as the allure of free tokens, authorities may find a concern.
Perhaps more significantly, we don’t really understand why governments or coffee shops would use Worldcoin. We completely understand why there is so much enthusiasm surrounding Worldcoin: Altman’s engagement, which appears to be a precaution against a nightmarish future that his OpenAI firm may assist to bring about; those glittering Orbs; the promise of free items. Apart than that, though, this appears to be another cryptographic method proposing hazy solutions to barely existent issues.
Furthermore, Worldcoin can be viewed by governments as an unacceptable power play. Even before AI begins to automate a sizable number of occupations, there is a strong case for universal basic income, and obtaining the funds is undoubtedly a major political challenge. However, why would one want to restructure their nation’s economy around the distribution platform of an American-German tech company? Recall how Facebook’s Libra project was killed off by government pressure due to privacy concerns and a threat to central banks? We fear that political naivete is affecting Altman and Worldcoin.
It didn’t take long for Kenya’s government to respond. Let’s see if others join in.
