Global Courant
LONDON/TOKYO/BENGALURU –
People around the world are getting their eyes scanned in exchange for a digital ID and the promise of free cryptocurrency, shrugging off the concerns of privacy activists and data regulators.
The Worldcoin project, founded by Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, says it aims to create a new “identity and financial network” and its digital ID will allow users to prove online that they are human and not a bot.
The project kicked off Monday, with eyeball scans in countries including Britain, Japan and India.
At a crypto conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, people lined up in front of a shiny silver globe flanked by signs reading “Orbs are here.” Applicants lined up to have their irises scanned by the device, before waiting for the 25 free Worldcoin tokens that the company says verified users can claim.
Users told Reuters they weighed their concerns about data collection against their curiosity about the project, which says it has issued IDs for more than two million people in 120 countries, mostly on a trial basis over the past two years.
“There is a risk in having a company collect the data of your own eyes, but I like to follow the most current crypto projects,” says Saeki Sasaki, 33.
“I was a little scared, but I did it now and can’t take it back.”
Worldcoin’s data collection is a “potential privacy nightmare,” according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US privacy activist.
Worldcoin did not respond to Reuters’ questions about its privacy policy sent via email on Tuesday. The company’s website says the project is “entirely private” and biometric data will be removed or users can choose to save it in encrypted form.
‘FREE MONEY’
In the lobby of an east London co-working space, two Worldcoin representatives showed a small stream of people on Monday how to download the app and get scanned, then handed out free t-shirts and stickers that read “verified human.”
Christian, a 34-year-old graphic designer, said he joined because he was “intrigued.” He follows developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto and buys crypto ‘just for fun’.
“I think in the future AI will be hard to distinguish from humans and I think it might solve that problem and that’s pretty amazing,” he said, who declined to give his full name for privacy reasons.
Worldcoin tokens were trading around $2.30 on Tuesday on the world’s largest exchange, Binance. For many users, the promise of financial benefits from the crypto coins was enough to make them hand over personal information.
Ali, a 22-year-old chemical engineering student who invested part of his student loan in crypto, said he calculated that the 25 free tokens could sell for $70 to $80 at current prices.
“I told my brother this morning. I told him ‘it’s free money, do you want to come with me and get it?'”
Both Christian and Ali said they had not read Worldcoin’s privacy policy, which states that data can be passed on to subcontractors and accessed by governments and authorities – though it also says it takes steps to mitigate risk and uses encryption to prevent unauthorized access.
“It’s pretty concerning, but I think a lot of companies have our data right now,” Ali said.
British privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch said there was a risk that biometric data could be hacked or misused.
“Digital ID systems increase state and corporate control over individuals’ lives and rarely live up to the extraordinary benefits technocrats attribute to them,” said senior advocacy group Madeleine Stone.
The project also caught the attention of regulators, with the UK’s data regulator telling Reuters it was inquiring about Worldcoin’s UK launch.
At a mall in Bengaluru, India, orb operators approached passersby on Tuesday and showed them how to sign up. Most interviewed by Reuters said they were not concerned about privacy.
One new user, 18-year-old trading student Sujith, said he hadn’t read Worldcoin’s fine print and wasn’t particularly concerned about his privacy. He said that he invests the small pocket money he gets from his family in crypto.
“As I was passing, they asked me if you want some free coins? So (I thought) why not?” he said.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft in London, Medha Singh in Bengaluru and Anton Bridge in Tokyo; edited by Mark Potter)
