Tools For Humanity, the technology firm behind the Worldcoin cryptocurrency project, has deleted all personal data collected from Kenyans in 2023 following a High Court directive, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has confirmed.
The US- and Germany-based company was ordered by the court on May 5, 2025 to permanently erase all data gathered from Kenyans using its iris-scanning orbs, after the exercise was found to have been conducted illegally for more than four months.
The ruling gave the firm seven days to comply and instructed the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner to oversee the deletion process.
“Regarding the processing of Kenyans’ personal data by Tools For Humanity, we confirm that the Data Controller has deleted all biometric data previously collected from Kenyan citizens,” the data protection commissioner’s office said in a notice shared with the Business Daily.
The company, which is co-owned by OpenAI chief Sam Altman, had collected the data as part of its Worldcoin project, which sought to create digital identities for users through biometric verification. The aim was to curb fraud and spam in the cryptocurrency space by confirming that users are real people rather than automated bots.
While the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner confirmed that the data had been deleted, it did not disclose how much information had been collected from Kenyans during the exercise.
The notice added that the commissioner’s office was “dedicated to enforcing the law, protecting data subjects, and ensuring that all data controllers and processors are held accountable for any non-compliance.”
Worldcoin opened public sign-ups worldwide on June 24, 2023, with Kenya becoming one of the most active locations. Large crowds gathered in Nairobi to scan their iris patterns using the company’s orbs in exchange for a digital identity known as World ID.
The ID allowed users to prove they were human and access transactions on the platform. To attract users, the company offered 25 free cryptocurrency tokens valued at about Sh8,200 at the time.
The government halted the exercise on August 2, 2023 after concerns were raised about the safety and handling of the sensitive biometric data being collected. Questions were also raised about whether Kenyans had been adequately informed about how their data would be used and stored.
Before the public launch, the Worldcoin project had already been running a pilot phase in Kenya and other countries, including Chile, Indonesia, France, and Sudan, since May 2021.
According to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Worldcoin has not resumed any data collection activities in Kenya since the suspension in 2023. This has remained the case even after the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions dropped its investigation into the firm in June 2024.
Kenya is not the only country to take action against the project. Other jurisdictions that have suspended Worldcoin over privacy concerns include Indonesia, Spain, Hong Kong, and Portugal.
