The Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner ruled that Worldcoin violated privacy regulations, demanding a halt to the collection of iris and facial images

Media reports state that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has completed its investigation into the Worldcoin project. The Privacy Commissioner, Ada Chung Lai-ling, ruled that Worldcoin's operations in Hong Kong violated the Privacy Ordinance and issued an enforcement notice requiring a halt to collecting citizens' iris and facial images using iris scanning devices. The investigation results showed that Worldcoin violated principles of data collection, retention, transparency, access and correction under the Privacy Ordinance. Collecting facial and iris images was not necessary and excessive; as for Worldcoin retaining personal data for up to 10 years to train artificial intelligence models for identity verification procedures, it was considered too long by the office and constituted excessive retention of personal data.