Authorities in Thailand have officially requested World, a Sam Altman-backed digital identity project, to suspend operations and delete all user identification data.
Thailand’s Economic and Social Development Board, the country’s strategic planning agency, ordered World to delete iris scans of 1.2 million local users, according to a statement by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) on Monday.
The order said World’s iris scanning in exchange for its Worldcoin (WLD) token violated Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act, which governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal data.
The suspension came weeks after Thai authorities raided one of World’s iris scanning locations in October amid allegations of potential digital asset law violations.
World halts Thai operations but doesn’t admit wrongdoing
World Thailand, which is represented by TIDC Worldverse per local reports, has paused local verifications, according to a statement on X shared on Sunday. World has also removed Thailand from the list of available countries with Orb locations.
“This order comes despite our compliance with local laws and regulations and having presented information to regulators openly and transparently,” the company said.
World Thailand emphasized that the halt negatively impacts millions of Thai users who have adopted its digital identity tech to help them protect from scams, identity theft and AI-driven fraud.
“We remain committed to building a safer digital reality today and in the future for Thais and continue to engage constructively with relevant Thai authorities, including MDES and PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission), on a path forward,” it added.
Cointelegraph approached World’s developer, Tools of Humanity, for comment regarding the raid, but had not received a response by publication.
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Since launching under its former name, Worldcoin, in July 2023, World has faced multiple regulatory challenges.
In May, Indonesia’s Digital Ministry said it was probing World’s local operators over alleged suspicious activity and registration violations. World subsequently paused verification services while clarifying license requirements.
Other countries, including Germany, Kenya and Brazil, have also raised concerns about potential risks to World users’ biometric data, though the company continues to insist user data is protected against breaches.
“World does not use centralized biometric infrastructure,” World told Cointelegraph in May, emphasizing that iris scans are never stored on the Orb, the device that captures and processes photos to generate the unique iris code, which is said to be anonymized.
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WLD, World’s native token, which is distributed to eligible World ID users in exchange for verification through iris scanning, has tumbled around 6% over the past seven days, and traded at $0.626 at the time of writing.
The token is down more than 70% over the past year, according to CoinGecko data.
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