Former Worldcoin Employee Raises Allegations of Potential Illegal Activities and Privacy Concerns
Summary:
Former Worldcoin employee alleges potential illegal activities within the project, claiming "questionable" actions and discrepancies. Authorities in different jurisdictions are investigating. Privacy concerns and data collection methods have been criticized. Worldcoin's local operations suspended in Kenya. Argentina launches probe into customer data handling.
A former employee named Nadir Hajarabi, who claimed to have worked for Worldcoin, has come forward with allegations of potential illegal activity within the project. In a YouTube video released on August 23, Hajarabi described witnessing questionable actions at Worldcoin, leading them to leave the project prior to its token launch on July 24. Hajarabi stated that the organization was withholding some of their pay and that they were cooperating with authorities in various jurisdictions investigating Worldcoin. Hajarabi further criticized the project's execution, claiming shortcuts were taken before the release of its white paper and expressing concerns from the beginning. Despite attempting to address these concerns with the Worldcoin CEO and legal team, Hajarabi reported unsatisfactory answers regarding the alleged discrepancies between the project's mission and implementation. The authenticity of Hajarabi's claims could not be independently verified, but a photo posted on X seemed to show them with one of the project's iris-scanning orbs. Hajarabi's YouTube channel, created in 2013, only featured one video making these allegations against Worldcoin. Additionally, an X account seemingly controlled by the same individual included a photo of an ETHGlobal Paris badge with Hajarabi's name and affiliation with Worldcoin. A LinkedIn page connected to Hajarabi appeared to belong to the same person in the YouTube video, identifying them as a Paris resident with experience in nonfungible tokens, web3 projects, and smart contracts. Cointelegraph reached out to Worldcoin for comment but did not receive a response. Beginning as a project aiming to distinguish between real people and bots using retinal scans for identity verification, Worldcoin garnered over 2 million sign-ups before the launch of its token in July. However, critics from within and outside the cryptocurrency industry raised concerns about privacy issues related to user data prior to the token launch. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision reportedly initiated an investigation into Worldcoin in November 2022, while the French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty labeled the project's data collection methods as questionable. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office also expressed similar worries about the project. In August, Kenya's minister of internal security announced the suspension of Worldcoin's local operations pending a risk assessment, which reportedly included a raid and seizure of the organization's equipment. Following this, Argentina's Agency for Access to Public Information launched a probe into Worldcoin's handling, storage, and use of customer data citing security and privacy concerns.
Published At
8/25/2023 8:50:00 PM
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