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

Claim

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

Quotes that support claims

The Orb was built to give individuals a way to prove their humanness online with maximum privacy and security. Now, the core components of the Orb’s software are publicly available on GitHub under an MIT/Apache 2.0 dual license.

Related projects

World

Related topics

Privacy

Sources

Worldcoin Foundation open sources core components of the Orb’s software

Supporting arguments

AMPC’s MPC pipeline retains raw iris codes on-device, ensuring that biometric images never leave the Orb
World ID relies on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) that mathematically prevent anyone from linking a person’s World ID across apps.
An independent Trail of Bits audit found no path to extract personally-identifiable data from production Orbs

Tags

Orbs adequately protect user privacy