- Kenyan High Court orders Worldcoin to delete citizens’ biometric data
- Due to data law violations and the absence of a mandatory DPIA
- The company has 7 days from May 5 to comply
Kenyan High Court orders Worldcoin to delete citizens’ biometric data, citing violations of national data protection laws and failure to conduct a required Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). The company has seven days from May 5 to erase the records or face legal action and penalties.
What’s Wrong with Worldcoin Biometry Data Collecting?
The Kenyan High Court ruled that Worldcoin has been collecting citizens’ biometric data without following proper procedures. The company began processing sensitive information — including iris scans and facial data — without complying with the requirements of Kenya’s 2019 Data Protection Act, specifically Section 31. This section mandates that data controllers must conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) before processing begins if there is a high risk to data subjects’ rights. According to the court, this obligation was ignored. Furthermore, the judges found that Worldcoin failed to ensure sufficient transparency in how consent was obtained, rendering such consent legally invalid under local law.
As a result, Worldcoin is required to delete all biometric data already collected within seven days from May 5. The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has been tasked with overseeing compliance, and the company is prohibited from collecting or processing any further biometric data in Kenya until all requirements are met.
Conclusion
From a technical standpoint, the ruling is undeniably strict, and Worldcoin’s engineers will likely face seven sleepless nights. When a large-scale system collects large-scale data and connects critical operations to it, deletion is not as simple as dragging a photo to the trash on your desktop.
From an ethical perspective, this may serve as an important reminder: established processes exist for a reason. Even if you disagree with them or find them burdensome, they should not be circumvented — they should be challenged and changed through proper channels, not ignored.
