Worldcoin Shadow History and Data Collection Practices: MIT Technology Review

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WorldCoin has been controversial and has recently announced plans to launch on July 24, 2023 and is looking for users. Built on the promise of a fairly distributed, co-owned digital currency, the company aims to reach one billion users through extraordinary user experience. Registration method: iris scan.

Found on Twitter by ZachXBT and referring to the MIT Technology Review from 2022, the saddest thing is that “the WorldCoin team is proud of how many users they have.” They have been exploiting people in developing countries.

2/6 What shocks me the most is how proud the WorldCoin team is about how many users they have.

In fact, they have been exploiting people in developing countries. pic.twitter.com/b9smMB4yqa

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) July 24, 2023

In the year In 2022, MIT investigated how WorldCoin was able to collect as many iris scans as possible. Worldcoin reports that “biometric data will remain on Orba and will be deleted once uploaded, or at least one day” and the $15 Worldcoin pledge. He was even scanning their irises for content.

“In the Villages of West Java, Indonesia […] Worldcoin representatives have been showing up for a day or two and collecting biometric data. In return, they've been known to offer everything from free cash (often local currency as well as Worldcoin tokens) to AirPods for promises of future riches.

WorldCoin's strategy centers around a proprietary device called a “chrome orb” designed to scan a user's iris, preventing multiple fraudulent accounts. This ‘biometric difference' has been converted to “IrisHash”, which the company says is stored locally and never shared.

MIT interviewed an Indonesian man named Iyus Ruswandi and asked him about his experience with Worldcoin. “Neither company representatives nor village officials on site can answer even basic questions about WorldCoin,” he said. He told investigators that he thought it was a hoax, “a mass data collection effort masquerading as a mysterious offline airdrop.”

And, while Internet literacy is limited to the Facebook app preloaded on people's cell phones:

“WorldCoin representatives had to help many residents first in setting up emails [and] Rusvandi recalled. If it is to attract users to a new cryptocurrency, ‘Why did WorldCoin target low-income communities in the first place, why crypto enthusiasts or communities?'

Worldcoin promises privacy protection, MIT says there is a lack of informed consent – but more deceptive marketing and more personal data collection – when it comes to signing up for Worldcoin.

Meanwhile, US-based users aren't even allowed to participate in the airport due to privacy laws. Most of the countries interviewed—including Indonesia, Kenya, Sudan, Ghana, Chile, and Norway—do not have the same strict privacy and investor protection laws as countries in Europe or the United States.

“Simply put, it's cheaper and easier to do this kind of data collection in places where people have little money and few legal protections.”

Security experts, including Edward Snowden, have expressed concern about WorldCoin's iris scanning process and the potential for misuse of the global iris database in 2022.

This seems to set up a global (hash) database of people's iris scans (“fairness”) and says “we deleted the scans!”

Yes, but they save the *hash* made by the hackers. Hashes matching *future* will be scanned.

Don't catalog eyeballs.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 23, 2021

“The human body is not a ticket-punch,” Snowden further tweeted.

Despite the fairness in the distribution of the currency, the company's commitment is in question by allocating 20% ​​of the coins in advance to Worldcoin full-time employees and investors (one being a16z), respectively.

Meanwhile, critics say this allocation is against the company's mission and ethics.

“Creating an identity on Web3 was a tumultuous movement that turned to blockchain, decentralized finance, and DAOs for no apparent purpose.”

WorldCoin's user recruitment strategy, which includes independent contractors, or “orbi operators,” and the company's shaky technical infrastructure have come under fire. Users' accounts seem to have lost access to them and the uncertainty of the pre-launch price of WorldCoin tokens raises concerns about the innovation's transparency and viability, MIT reports.

While the company dismissed these findings as “isolated incidents,” the question remains: Can WorldCoin's revolutionary aspirations for financial inclusion withstand the critical security and privacy risks that follow its bold effort?

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