Colombia launches probe into Worldcoin's knowledge practices

• The SIC is investigating Worldcoin for doable violations of Colombian knowledge safety legal guidelines.
• Concentrate on gathering biometric knowledge by Orb units in main Colombian cities.
• Penalties might embody fines, suspension or everlasting closure if a violation is discovered.

Colombia's Superintendence of Business and Commerce (SIC) is investigating the decentralized id mission Worldcoin and its firm Instruments for Humanity for doable violations of the nation's knowledge safety legal guidelines.

The transfer comes as Worldcoin faces rising scrutiny over its knowledge assortment practices, notably the way it handles delicate private data. The investigation, introduced in an announcement on Wednesday, will assess whether or not Worldcoin's actions in Colombia adjust to the nation's strict knowledge safety guidelines.

The SIC discover, a preliminary step with out a formal cost, goals to find out whether or not Worldcoin and Instruments for Humanity violated Colombian knowledge safety legal guidelines. The investigation focuses on the gathering of delicate private knowledge and the implementation of information processing insurance policies and privateness notices.

Issues have been raised about Worldcoin's practices, particularly the gathering of biometric knowledge by its Orb machine. The units are stated to be in use in 25 areas throughout Colombia, together with Bogota and different main cities equivalent to Medellin, Cartagena and Barranquilla.

Worldcoin, a mission co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, assigns world IDs to people who take part in iris scans carried out by these units. In return, individuals obtain WLD tokens as a type of crypto-assets.

Sources point out that if Worldcoin is discovered responsible, SIC might face critical penalties, together with financial sanctions, a brief suspension of as much as six months, and even the quick and everlasting closure of Worldcoin's operations in Colombia.

This investigation follows comparable considerations raised in different Latin American international locations, equivalent to Ecuador, the place authorities have additionally investigated Worldcoin's actions.

Regardless of the continued investigation, the efficiency of the Worldcoin market stays constructive. On the time of writing, Worldcoin was buying and selling at $1.73 with a 24-hour buying and selling quantity of $123,973,475. Market knowledge reveals that the worth of Worldcoin has elevated by 8.71% within the final day.