Worldcoin Chief Executive Officer Alex Blania has revealed that all images taken from Kenyans during the registration process were deleted.
Appearing before the National Assembly‘s ad Hoc Committee investigating his company’s operations in Kenya, Blania refuted claims that the company was out to mine data from Kenyans.
Instead, he noted that they were only interested in the iris codes to be used in authentication of accounts.
The codes, he noted, are used to verify that a user is human and would be used as security to the users’ accounts.
When asked about the fate of the iris images taken from Kenyans, the CEO explained that its system deletes all images captured by default after obtaining their respective iris codes.
“First and foremost, the app by default deletes all images during processing,” he told the Members of Parliament.
“The iris code is the actual thing kept in the device while all the pictures are deleted by default.”
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Regarding the storage off data gathered throughout the process, Blania noted that Worldcoin has servers in the United States, South Africa, India, Singapore, and Brazil where the data is stored.
Worldcoin’s servers
However, he explained that data collected in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, or Nigeria is stored in South Africa.
According to the company, the World ID is designed to enhance privacy. The Company explained that using the unique iris biometrics will solve the “increasingly difficult challenge of differentiating between robots and people.
In response to health concerns raised by Kenyans who took part in the registration, the CEO allayed such fears.
Blania asserted that orbs used to capture images was from a reputable company in Germany with “one of the strictest certification agencies in the world”.
Also Read: CS Nakhumicha Warns Kenyans of Health Risks Linked to Worldcoin Eye Scans
Why Worldcoin Chose Kenya
In addition, the company’s Chief Legal Officer Thomas Scott explained that Worldccoin chose Kenya to be among the pilot countries for its project owing to the country’s position in tech advancements.
Scott noted that Kenya has made progress in tech adoption and has a better environment hence the decision to choose Kenya.
“The level of tech adoption, talent, political stability and integrity here, we thought that this was a place alongside Chile and Portugal where the ideas alongside the technology could be tested to be improved,” he explained.
The response from Worldcoin executives came amid concerns regarding the safety of data collected and health risks that were allegedly posed in the process.
The ad Hoc committee invited various stakeholders including government officials in a bid to unearth the reality surrounding Worldcoin’s operations.
