Sam Altman’s World is back under the microscope this month as concerns related to the iris-scanning project resurface.

Last week, Thai regulators inspected an iris-scanning location in Bangkok and arrested several suspects near the location for operating an unlicensed crypto exchange.

The inspection revolved around individuals who are not affiliated with World or its parent company, Tools for Humanity, a person close to the matter told DL News.

On October 3, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce, Colombia’s data protection and market regulator, ordered the immediate closure of World’s data processing operations following a seven-month investigation.

The actions come as a blow to the project, which is working to overhaul its data collection policies to boost security, enhance user privacy, and get on regulators’ good side.

“We respectfully disagree with the decision issued by the SIC,” a World spokesperson told DL News.

“This is a preliminary first-instance ruling, and World will file the corresponding appeals to ensure a comprehensive understanding of its technology.”

WLD ($0.89) token plummets

The World project, formerly called Worldcoin, was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019 to create a global ID, currency, and payments app.

The project uses scans of users’ eyes — specifically their unique iris patterns — to prove their identities.

Volunteers who visit iris-scanning stations and agree to have their eyes scanned can receive a lump sum of WLD, a crypto asset issued by the project with a market value of $2 billion.

Over the past month, WLD has fallen by some 31%. The token is now down more than 92% from its March 2024 all-time high.

Privacy concerns

Since World officially launched its iris-scanning stations in 2023, governments around the world have raised concerns over the ethics of collecting sensitive biometric data, which they say poses significant privacy and security risks.

More than a half dozen nations — including the UK, France, Portugal, and Brazil — have either directed the company to stop violating the privacy of volunteers, including minors in Spain, or opened probes into the platform.

In December 2024, German authorities declared that World had violated data privacy rules and ordered it to delete the iris codes it had collected, according to a 132-page enforcement order.

In July, the project paused its iris-scanning operations in Germany after organised groups paid refugees and the unsheltered cash to scan their eyes at different scanning stations in Berlin in exchange for the WLD rewards they earned for scanning.

At least one group in Berlin that enlisted these recruits may have earned nearly $700,000 in tokens in March and April last year, when the token was at its peak, according to a DL News analysis.

Not all governments have been hostile to World, however.

Last year, MIMOS Berhad, the applied research and development arm of the Malaysian government, entered into an agreement to integrate World’s technology into the country’s digital identity infrastructure.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi correspondent. Reach out to him with tips at tim@dlnews.com.