Worldcoin defied local government orders to stop collecting personal data before shutting down in Kenya

Months before Kenya finally banned Worldcoin from iris scanning, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has ordered its parent company, Tools for Humanity, to stop collecting personal data. According to a letter sent to Worldcoin by the Kenyan Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), the ODPC directed Worldcoin in May this year to stop iris scans and the collection of facial recognition and other personal data in Kenya. But its parent company, Tools for Humanity, did not stop taking biometric data until earlier this month, while a more powerful regulator, Kenya's Ministry of Home Affairs and Administration, suspended the project after it was formally established. A new petition filed with the High Court by the ODPC reveals details of the ODPC's attempts to prevent the collection of biometric data. The ODPC sought help from the courts and forced Worldcoin to preserve data collected from Kenyans from April 19 to August 8. (Techcrunch) According to previous reports, the Kenyan police raided Worldcoin’s offices in Nairobi and confiscated machines that the police believed were collecting user data. The police took the data to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Bureau for analysis. The raid was overseen by Kenya's data protection commissioner, Immaculate Kassait. Immaculate Kassait said Worldcoin parent company Tools for Humanity failed to reveal its true intentions when it registered.