REGULATION | WorldCoin CEO Grilled by Kenyan Parliament – Says Over 635,000 Kenyans Have Downloaded the App

Tools for Humanity Chief Executive Officer and WorldCoin CEO, Alex Blania, appeared physically in the Kenyan parliament on September 6 2023 where he answered several questions regarding his company’s operations.

The company drew the attention of Kenyan authorities in July 2023 as hundreds thronged various locations in the country to scan their irises and gain a 25 $WLD token reward. Hence, the company’s operations were suspended in early August 2023, with investigations into the company instituted.

Appearing before the National Assembly Adhoc Committee, Blania refuted several claims made in recent times about WorldCoin, including in regard to data collection.

“For the avoidance of doubt, WorldCoin does not and never will involve the collection or selling of data,” Tools for Humanity Chief Executive Officer Alex Blania said before the parliamentary committee.

“No one – not even Tools for Humanity – can link biometric data to World ID. Further, the majority of the internal schematics and technical details of the technology are publicly available on the internet for everyone to review,” he said.

Blania shed light on how the Orb collects data saying that these devices gather data by scanning an individual’s iris and this scanned image is then converted into a distinctive iris code. This data is then stored in servers located in:

• South Africa
• The European Union (Germany, Italy and Poland), and
• with iris code stored in the United States

WorldCoin’s appearance before the Kenyan inquiry occurred despite the revelation that the country’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) had revoked its registration certificate, which had originally been issued in June 2022.

According to Scott Thomas, the Chief Legal Officer of WorldCoin, the notice of cancellation from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) was issued the evening before they appeared before the committee.

“ODPC revoked our certificate yesterday evening and no doubt this is of interest. They provided four reasons for the cancellation and we respectfully think that cancellation was outside the normal process and the correct underlying facts,” Thomas said.

According to Thomas, since April 2022 the company had been operating under the legal requirement as data controllers.

“We subsequently engaged with the office of data commissioner and secured registration certificate as data controllers, as late as August 2 2023, CS Eliud Owalo said that we were operating within the law,” he said.

The American company implored the committee to initiate an investigation into the issue and requested that the suspension of their activities, which they claimed had adversely affected their operations in the country, be lifted.

“We want to request that the committee investigates this matter with a view of creating regulations, the company prays that the committee finds that WorldCoin did not engage in any wrong doing, we pray that the suspension be lifted with the necessary legal and regulatory oversight,” Blania noted.

Following the grilling, the Kenyan government has cancelled the operating license for Tools for Humanity in the country.