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South Korea levies $860K fine on Worldcoin for compliance failures related to data collection

South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has fined Worldcoin and its affiliate Tools for Humanity (TFH) a total of KRW 1.14 billion ($861,408) for failing to disclose the purpose of collecting iris data, violating the country's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Worldcoin must pay a fine of approximately $550,000, while TFH owes around $287,000. The PIPC has also issued corrective orders and improvement recommendations. The investigation found that the firms collected personal information without a legal basis, failed to inform users of the purpose of collection and use, and did not fulfill transparency obligations when transferring the data overseas. The companies are now required to obtain separate consent for processing iris information and ensure it is only used for collection purposes. They must also notify users when transferring iris data overseas. Worldcoin was also found to have not provided an option for users to delete or suspend the processing of their iris codes, but they later added a delete function.

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