People around the globe are being eyeball scanned in exchange for a digital ID and the promise of free cryptocurrency, disregarding the concerns of privacy advocates and data regulators.
Founded by Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT OpenAI developer, the Worldcoin project says it goals to create a latest “identity and finance network,” and its digital ID will allow users to prove online that they’re human, not bots, amongst other things.
The project began on Monday, with eyeball scanning going down in countries reminiscent of the UK, Japan and India.
At a crypto conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, people lined up in front of a gleaming silver orb surrounded by signs that read: “The orbs are here.”
Candidates lined as much as have their irises scanned by the device before waiting for 25 free Worldcoin tokens, which the corporate says verified users can apply for.
Users told Reuters they weighed the concerns concerning the data collection with the curiosity of the project, which says it has issued IDs to greater than two million people in 120 countries, totally on a trial basis over the past two years.
“There are risks with an organization’s first-hand data collection, but I prefer to follow the newest crypto projects,” said Saeki Sasaki, 33.
“I used to be slightly scared but I did it now and I am unable to take it back.”
Worldcoin’s data collection is a “potential privacy nightmare,” said the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US privacy activist.
Worldcoin didn’t reply to Reuters questions on its privacy policy sent by email on Tuesday.
The corporate’s website says the project is “completely private” and that either biometrics are deleted or users can select to maintain them encrypted.
‘Free Money’
Within the lobby of an east London coworking space on Monday, two Worldcoin representatives showed a small stream of people easy methods to download the app and get scanned, then handing out free t-shirts and stickers that read “Verified Human”.
Christian, a 34-year-old graphic designer, said he was participating because he was “intrigued”.
It follows the event of artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrencies, buying cryptocurrencies “for fun”.
“I feel going forward, AI will probably be hard to tell apart from a human, and I feel that potentially solves that problem, and that is pretty amazing,” he said, refusing to present his full name for privacy reasons.
Worldcoin tokens traded around $2.30 on Tuesday on the world’s largest exchange, Binance.
For a lot of users, the promise of economic advantages from crypto coins was enough to pass on personal information.
Ali, a 22-year-old chemical engineering student who has invested a part of his student loan in crypto, said he calculated that 25 free tokens could possibly be sold for $70 to $80 at current prices.
“I told my brother this morning. I told him “it’s free money, do you need to include me to get it?”
Each Christian and Ali said that they had not read Worldcoin’s privacy policy, which says data could also be passed on to subcontractors and will be accessed by governments and authorities – though it also says it takes steps to mitigate risk and uses encryption to discourage unauthorized access.
“It’s quite worrying, but I feel numerous firms have our data at this point,” Ali said.
UK privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said there was a risk that biometrics could possibly be hacked or misused.
“Digital identification systems increase state and company control over individuals’ lives and barely achieve the extraordinary advantages that technocrats attribute to them,” said Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy specialist.
The project has also attracted the eye of regulators, with the UK data regulator telling Reuters that it is asking about launching Worldcoin in the UK.
At a shopping mall in Bengaluru, India, crutch operators approached passers-by on Tuesday and showed them easy methods to register.
Most of those surveyed by Reuters said they weren’t concerned about privacy.
One latest user, 18-year-old trading student Sujith, said he hadn’t read Worldcoin’s high quality print and didn’t really have privacy concerns.
He said he invests the little pocket money he receives from his family in cryptocurrencies.
“As I used to be passing by, they asked me should you’d like some free coins? So (I assumed) why not?” he said.