Chilean authorities from the consumer protection watchdog SERNAC are investigating the company that will provide domiciliary iris scanning services to World, formerly Worldcoin. The measure comes after the institution asked the courts to suspend the project activities last month.
World Faces Opposition From Chilean Authorities Regarding Domiciliary Eye Scanning Activities
World, the eye-scanning-based identification project, is facing backlash from Chilean authorities as the company seeks to expand its user base by adopting a new integration modality. Last month, as the company rebranded from Worldcoin to World, it revealed that it would start developing domiciliary eye-scanning activities, taking the orb to citizens’ homes in Latam.
Read more: Sam Altman Rebrands Biometric ID Project Worldcoin to World as Mainnet Launches
Orbs, as World calls them, are devices allowing users to get verified in the system, and a new design would ease the task of carrying them around for this new pilot program. The new modality aimed at Latam markets worried the consumer protection agency in Chile, SERNAC, which has moved to act against World before courts, seeking to suspend the company’s activities in Chile.
In the same way, SERNAC inquired about the activities that Rappi, the urban transportation company that partnered with World to carry these tasks, would develop in the country. The delivery platform, with over 300,000 registered drivers in the region, would help massify World’s penetration. Traditionally, users had to move to the points where an orb was available.
Rappi clarified that, while the company had partnered with World to complete these registration tasks, this pilot would not be developed in Chile. Rappi stated:
Rappi and World have signed a pre-agreement (or Memorandum of Understanding) to develop a pilot test of an on-demand service for proof of humanity, which will be developed in Argentina during the first quarter of next year. The development of this service in Chile is not planned.
SERNAC has received several companies linked to the operation of World in Chile, including the registration of minors into the system, the operator’s failure to disclose the destiny of the data, and the impossibility of eliminating this data from the system.
