Colombia Orders Closure of Worldcoin Over Unlawful Biometric Data Collection
Colombia's Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio ordered the immediate closure of World Foundation and Tools for Humanity Corporation for collecting iris biometric data without adequate disclosure about data use. The company offered payments in exchange for iris scans but failed to clearly inform people about how their sensitive data would be treated or provide required data protection procedures.
What happened
World Foundation and Tools for Humanity Corporation collected iris biometric images from thousands of people in Colombia in exchange for economic compensation.
The company subjected iris images to various forms of treatment, including conversion into biometric templates, but did not provide sufficiently clear information about the purposes of this data processing.
Reported impact
The Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio found that the company conditioned people's consent to data processing on the offer of economic incentive and failed to provide clear information about specific purposes.
The company lacked required data protection policies, procedures for handling data subject requests, and adequate security measures for sensitive personal data processing.
Index analysis
The company violated several legal duties in personal data protection, including collecting sensitive biometric data without proper authorization and without meeting requirements for voluntary consent.
Governance controls
The SIC ordered the immediate and definitive closure of World Foundation and Tools for Humanity Corporation throughout Colombia.
The regulator ordered the deletion of sensitive personal data, including iris codes, from all databases, repositories or servers used by the company for storage.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.