Prominent technologists warn the Orb scheme could create a dystopian biometric registry

Opposing arguments

Core Orb firmware and biometric pipeline are open-source, allowing anyone to audit that no personal data is retained

World ID relies on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) that mathematically prevent anyone from linking a person’s World ID across apps.

AMPC’s MPC pipeline retains raw iris codes on-device, ensuring that biometric images never leave the Orb

An independent Trail of Bits audit found no path to extract personally-identifiable data from production Orbs

Quotes that support claims

As the Worldcoin project involves iris scanning, it raises substantial privacy concerns, according to Buterin. Even though the system currently only stores hashed versions of iris scans, not the actual images, and aims to protect user identity with ZK-SNARKs and other cryptographic techniques, there is an inherent risk of identity-related information being misused or leaked, Buterin said. “At the very least, if someone else scans your iris, they can check it against the database to determine whether or not you have a World ID. Potentially, iris scans might reveal more information,” he added.

This looks like it produces a global (hash) database of people's iris scans (for "fairness"), and waves away the implications by saying "we deleted the scans!" Yeah, but you save the "hashes" produced by the scans. Hashes that match "future" scans.

Related projects

Related topics

Sources

Vitalik Buterin outlines ‘four major risks’ with Worldcoin following token launch

Supporting arguments

The Bavarian data-protection authority (BayLDA) ordered Worldcoin to delete millions of stored iris hashes for violating the EU’s GDPR, proving that the hashes remain personally identifiable data under European law despite World’s “anonymisation” claims

South Korea’s Personal‑Information Protection Commission fined Worldcoin ₩1.1 billion (≈ US$0.8 m) for illegally collecting 30 000 irises and transferring the data overseas without consent.

Tags

Orbs present a risk to user privacy