According to PANews, the Privacy Commissioner's Office of Hong Kong has completed its investigation into the Worldcoin project and ruled that the operation of Worldcoin in Hong Kong violates the data protection principles of the Privacy Ordinance regarding the collection, retention, transparency, access and correction of personal data, and requires the Worldcoin project to stop using iris scanning devices to collect iris and facial images of citizens in Hong Kong.
The Privacy Commissioner's Office proactively launched an investigation into the "World Coin" project in January 2024. From December 2023 to January 2024, a total of 10 "snake" operations were carried out at the six operating points of the "World Coin" in Hong Kong. On January 31, 2024, with a court warrant, it entered the six operating points of the "World Coin" project in Hong Kong located in Yau Ma Tei, Kwun Tong, Wan Chai, Cyberport, Central and Causeway Bay for investigation. After two rounds of inquiries, the relevant investigation has now been completed.
The investigation found that people who participated in the "World Coin" project needed to allow the relevant organizations to collect their facial and iris images through iris scanning to "verify" their human identity and create an iris code, thereby obtaining a registered identity (i.e. World ID) and receiving virtual currency "World Coin" for free on a regular basis. "World Coin" confirmed that a total of 8,302 people were authenticated through facial and iris scanning during its operation in Hong Kong.
