Worldcoin Threatened With Sanctions In South Korea Due To Biometric Data Scandal

A number of people seem to be observing Worldcoin's ORB eye scanner device. (Photo; Doc. BasicThingking)

JAKARTA - The Worldcoin Project, which claims to be a global identity and financial network owned by everyone, is now under the spotlight of the South Korean government. The reason is, this project allegedly violates personal data protection rules by collecting and processing biometric information of its users.

Worldcoin is a protocol and application that aims to grant ownership to every human through digital identity and financial access. To join Worldcoin, users must download the World App, a digital wallet that supports the creation of World ID, a digital identity that maintains user privacy.

Furthermore, users must visit a slice scanner device called Orb, which is operated by an independent local business network. The orbit will verify the uniqueness and humanity of the user, and provide a 25 WLD bonus, the Worldcoin cryptocurrency, to users who have been successfully verified. Worldcoin claims that the image of the user's slice will be deleted after verification, unless the user chooses to save it on the blockchain.

However, this practice has drawn protests from various parties, including the South Korean government, which considers it a violation of the privacy rights of user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission, an agency that oversees the policies and legal compliance of data protection in South Korea, has opened an investigation into Worldcoin and related parties.

The head of the commission, Ko Hak-soo, said that they would investigate the overall collection and processing of sensitive information, including data transfer abroad, under the Personal Information Protection Act. If a violation is found, the commission will take action in accordance with applicable laws and regulations as reported by CryptoSlate.

South Korea is not the only country to take a firm stance against Worldcoin. Previously, Argentina, Kenya, Hong Kong, France, and Bavaria had also carried out similar investigations, to ensure that Worldcoin complied with local data protection laws.

Worldcoin itself is one of the crypto projects that has received a lot of attention, because it is supported by several well-known figures, such as Sam Altman, former president Y Combinator, and Alexander Friedland, former CEO of SpaceX. Worldcoin claims that its goal is to provide financial access to everyone in the world, regardless of their country or background, and create a more humane economic system in the AI era.

According to the Worldcoin website, currently there are more than 100,000 users who own World ID and receive WLD. The WLD value itself currently ranges from 8.14 US dollars (Rp 127,600) to 9.17 US dollars (Rp 143,900) per token. However, this project has also drawn a lot of criticism, especially related to privacy, security and ethical issues in collecting biometric data.