In a witty turn of events, the government of Kenya through the Kithure Kindiki led Ministry of Interior and Co-odination, has halted the actitvities of Worldcoin that was hosted at the Kenyatta International Convention Center.

The activity was charecterized by long queues of Kenyans who for KES 7,700/ consented to be scaned in the iris, data which the global fintech built on the bitcoin technology assured of proper use and storage in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The office of the Data Protection Commisioner had earlier in the day, in a joint statement with the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), issued a statemnt to the press that poked holes in the security of the highly sensitive biometrics data being mined or bought by Worldcoin.

The statement read in part, “The issues include lack of clarity on the security and storage of the collected sensitive data (facial recognition and iris scans), obtaining consumer (data subject) consent in exchange for monetary reward which borders on inducement, uncertainty regarding consumer protection on cryptocurrency and related ICT services, inadequate information on cybersecurity safeguards and standards and massive citizen data in the hands of private actors without an appropriate framework.”

Who is Worldcoin?

Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency fintech, built on the blockchain technology. It was co-founded by Sam Altman, the owner of the America based generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) company ChatGPT, and Alex Blania, who is the company’s CEO.

The fintech has a registration process that involves scanning one’s eyeballs through an orb in exchange for a digital identity called World ID. In Kenya, citizens are ‘rewarded’ monetary benefits to a tune of KES 7,700/ upon successful registration.

Their model of user onboarding rang alarm bells, poking questions of potential misuse or abuse of highly sensitive personal data. Authoritis have questions the ethical concerns in the storage and processing of such data, amid Worldcoin affirmation that they neither process or trade in such data.

In its response to MIT Technology Review, the comany said “We want to make it very clear that Worldcoin is not a data company and our business model does not involve exploiting or selling personal user data. Worldcoin is only interested in a user’s uniqueness — i.e., that they have not signed up for Worldcoin before — not their identity.”

In Europe, the United Kingdom data watchdog expressed great concerns about the company’s endavours in London. The Information Commisioner’s Office announcing a probe into their activities. Elsewhere in Germany, Michael Will, the state regulator’s president, has shared his concerns about Worldcoin. In a statement to and published by Reuters, he says, “These technologies are at first sight neither established nor well analysed for the specific core purpose of the processing in the field of transferring financial information.” He adds that “This leads to a number of risks, including whether users have given explicit consent to their highly-sensitive biometric data being processed on the basis of “sufficient and clear” information.

In Kenya, users may give explicit consent even by appending signatures, but does this mean that they read and understand the terms? This is a gray area.

Kilunganya Margret, lives and works in Nairobi. She has been iris-scanned and paid KES 7,700/ with a promise of additional airdrop cash per week. She had this to say; Sasa kama hakuna pesa, mtu atafanyaje na maisha ni ngumu? Sai kijana yangu amefukuzwa fee na unaona hii ni pesa tu ya free. Unasimama tu hapo ukiangalia glass ndogo na unalipwa pesa.”

This loosely translates to ” There is no money and the economy is tough. I have no choice. My son has been sent from school for fees. I had to take this ‘free money’. All I had to do was stand before a glass object, look into it and earn money.”

Her confession raises serious issues of gross user ignorance. People give consent without the knowlegde of what they are consenting to.

When asked about potential future repurcussions, she says, “Sasa si tutakufa tu wote. Hata wale hawajachukuliwa macho watakufa tu. Naskia wataninyima kupanda ndege, sasa mimi ata ni mtu wa kuja kupana ndege kweli?”

“We shall all die eventually, even those who did not scan their irises. I hear that they may use the data to deny me access to facilities like airport but am I ever going to fly?”

I asked if she would let  her children scan their irises and her response was a resounding no. “Unajua, kama mzazi mimi ndio nakua kama kafara yao. aingawa bado ni wachanga lakini ata wakikua wakubwa siwezi kubali sisi wote tuuze macho yetu ata kama tunabaki nazo.”

“No, I wont allow my children to scan their irises. As a parent, I will be the sacrificial lamb. I’ll face he bullet for them. My children are still young but even when they grow, I cannot allow all of us to sell our eyes even thoug we retain the sight.”

Kenyans may be quick to buy the Worldcoin idea due to the monetary incentive, that comes at a time when the economy is bleeding. There are no jobs and the government has whet its appetite on taxation, recently enacting the Finance Act 2023, that has increased the tax cap among high income earners and introduced new levies across board.