Thailand’s government has stepped in to halt a controversial iris-scanning program run by TIDC Worldverse, a firm tied to the Worldcoin project. Authorities ordered the immediate suspension of biometric data collection and the deletion of records from over 1.2 million citizens, citing violations of the nation’s data protection laws.
The Personal Data Protection Committee found that the company failed to obtain proper consent for gathering iris scans, which were exchanged for cryptocurrency tokens. Pol. Col. Surapong Plengkham, secretary-general of the PDPC, stated that the investigation uncovered “other suspicious issues, such as the case of a scheme to hire people to scan their irises in exchange for coins to be used by other individuals.”
This move follows a raid on a Worldcoin exchange in October, where several suspects were arrested amid concerns over illegal activities. TIDC Worldverse has paused operations but plans to fight the decision in court, arguing the program’s benefits for digital identity.
Worldcoin, backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has faced similar pushback worldwide. Regulators in Germany and elsewhere have raised alarms over privacy breaches, while the project’s goal of scanning billions for a universal digital ID raises questions about mass surveillance and data control by unelected tech elites.
A finance professor at the University of Southern California noted that “it’s really just hard to judge something that’s a crypto with a 2 billion dollar market cap as anything other than experimental or a fad.”
With only 17.5 million enrollments so far—far short of the 1 billion target—the scheme has drawn criticism for targeting vulnerable populations in developing nations, offering small crypto rewards in exchange for irreplaceable personal biometrics. Thailand’s firm stance protects individual privacy against such global experiments, echoing broader worries about how tech giants might exploit personal data for profit or control.
