Bad news came to Worldcoin from Hong Kong, which has taken important steps towards becoming a cryptocurrency center.
Hong Kong authorities raided the offices of controversial cryptocurrency project Worldcoin on suspicion of violating local laws, local news agency hket reported.
At this point, the Office of the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner responsible for Personal Data said that after its raid, Worldcoin, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was suspected of misusing the biometric data obtained.
The Hong Kong competent office said that the raid was carried out by court order and the documents seized during the raid were confiscated.
The statement also added that Worldcoin poses serious personal data privacy risks and may involve violations of the Privacy Regulation.
The office added that no complaints had been made regarding the iris scan.
Lo Dik-fan, senior personal data officer at the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner's Office, said in his statement:
“Iris information is a type of biometric data. Generally speaking, this type of data is unique, unalterable and can be considered sensitive personal data.
“The public's personal data should be carefully protected and they should refrain from participating in activities that arbitrarily collect sensitive personal data, such as iris scanning.”
Following the news, Worldcoin (WLD) began to decline. WLD continues to trade at $2.33 at the time of writing.
*This is not investment advice.
