WorldCoin - Sam Altman's biometric data harvesting crypto

[searcher]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raises $100M for Worldcoin crypto project, which uses 'Orb' to scan your eye: report​

Story by Chris Pandolfo • Yesterday 3:55 PM

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly raised nearly $100 million for his next big project, a cryptocurrency called Worldcoin that will verify users' unique identities by scanning their eyes.

After revolutionizing artificial intelligence with ChatGPT, Altman has set his sights on creating an "inclusive" global cryptocurrency that will be available to anyone who verifies their "unique personhood" with the "Orb," an imaging device that takes a picture of an iris pattern.

Founded by Altman and Alex Blania in 2019, Worldcoin is set to launch in several weeks once Altman has secured the necessary funding. Previous investors in the project include Khosla Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, the Financial Times reported.

More:

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raises $100M for Worldcoin crypto project, which uses 'Orb' to scan your eye: report

 

[searcher]

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Britain's data regulator said on Tuesday it will examine Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman where users provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital identification and free cryptocurrency.

UK data watchdog to make enquiries about Worldcoin crypto project

Britain's data regulator said on Tuesday it will examine Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman where users provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital identification and free cryptocurrency.

www.reuters.com

 

[pmbug]

Worldcoin is a "mark of the beast" devil. No thank you.

 

[searcher]

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Worldcoin will expand its operations to sign up more users globally and aims to allow other organisations to use its iris-scanning and identity-verifying technology, a senior manager for the company behind the project told Reuters.

Co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Worldcoin launched last week, requiring users to give their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and, in some countries, free cryptocurrency as part of plans to create a "identity and financial network".

Worldcoin says will allow companies, governments to use its ID system

Worldcoin will expand its operations to sign up more users globally and aims to allow other organisations to use its iris-scanning and identity-verifying technology, a senior manager for the company behind the project told Reuters.

www.reuters.com

 

[searcher]

From April 2022

Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users

The startup promises a fairly-distributed, cryptocurrency-based universal basic income. So far all it's done is build a biometric database from the bodies of the poor.

www.technologyreview.com

 

[searcher]

Spain Bans Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Amid Data Collection Concerns​

Spain has banned Worldcoin, a digital ID cryptocurrency venture launched by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, after the country’s privacy watchdog cited concerns over how the company’s eyeball-scanning technology collects and processes biometric data.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) issued a precautionary measure Wednesday that prohibits Worldcoin’s activities in the country for up to three months, after the agency received “several complaints” about alleged insufficient information, the collection of data from minors and concerns that consent can’t be withdrawn.

More:

MSN

 

[searcher]

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) - Britain's data regulator said on Tuesday it will examine Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman where users provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital identification and free cryptocurrency.

UK data watchdog to make enquiries about Worldcoin crypto project

Britain's data regulator said on Tuesday it will examine Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman where users provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital identification and free cryptocurrency.

www.reuters.com

Worldcoin is a "mark of the beast" devil. No thank you.

Cash-strapped Argentines queue for eyeball scans

Argentines eyeing a financial boost are lining up by the thousands to have their irises scanned in exchange for a few crypto tokens as part of an online biometrics project under scrutiny in several countries.For volunteering their data, initial participants receive 10 tokens each of Worldcoin's...

www.yahoo.com

 

[searcher]

Hong Kong regulator directs Worldcoin to cease operations citing privacy concerns​

May 22 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong regulator on Wednesday served an enforcement notice to Worldcoin Foundation directing it to cease all operations of the cryptocurrency project in the country, citing risk to privacy and personal data.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) added that Worldcoin should stop scanning and collecting iris and face images of the public using its devices. It also dubbed the data collection as "unnecessary and excessive".

Worldcoin encourages people to have their irises scanned by its "orb" devices, in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency. More than 5 million people in over 160 countries have signed up to have their irises scanned, according to its website. But the project has drawn criticism over the collection, storage and use of personal data.

More:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/hong-kong-regulator-directs-worldcoin-cease-operations-citing-privacy-concerns-2024-05-22/

 

[pmbug]

Glad to see some high profile pushback on Worldcoin. It's sad to see how many people gave away their biometric data to get marked by the beast.

 

[searcher]

Hong Kong regulator directs Worldcoin to cease operations citing privacy concerns​

May 22 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong regulator on Wednesday served an enforcement notice to Worldcoin Foundation directing it to cease all operations of the cryptocurrency project in the country, citing risk to privacy and personal data.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) added that Worldcoin should stop scanning and collecting iris and face images of the public using its devices. It also dubbed the data collection as "unnecessary and excessive".

Worldcoin encourages people to have their irises scanned by its "orb" devices, in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency. More than 5 million people in over 160 countries have signed up to have their irises scanned, according to its website. But the project has drawn criticism over the collection, storage and use of personal data.

More:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/hong-kong-regulator-directs-worldcoin-cease-operations-citing-privacy-concerns-2024-05-22/

More on worldcoin.

Tech Firms Prey on Poor Under Guise of Expanding Access to Financial Services

Finance, technology and social media companies often position themselves as solutions to problems they helped create.

truthout.org

 

[pmbug]

From December 19:

Sam Altman's company Worldcoin must delete all iris scanning data collected since the start of the project that has sparked privacy concerns in several countries, Spanish data protection watchdog AEPD said on Thursday.

AEPD cited a decision earlier on Thursday by its Bavarian counterpart BayLDA, with whom the agency has cooperated on the case, that found the venture in breach of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.

World, as Worldcoin has rebranded itself, has its European headquarters in the German city of Erlangen, in Bavaria.
...

https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/spanish-watchdog-tells-worldcoin-delete-all-iris-scan-data-2024-12-19/

~~~

Google translate from a newspaper based in Chile (from 4 days ago):

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a protection appeal filed by lawyer Rodrigo Lagos, the father of a 17-year-old girl, against the company Worldcoin (now known as World).

The highest court determined that the company violated the constitutional guarantees regarding physical and mental integrity, and the young woman's right to privacy, when she scans her iris without parental consent.

According to Ciper, in exchange for allowing her iris to be scanned, the 17-year-old received cryptocurrencies and agreed to an app that allowed her to administer them. While Worldcoin collected and stored its biometric data.
...
A minor cannot give her consent to be scanned by the iris, or whatever they could, or a fingerprint could take her, without the parents knowing. And the company was just failing to comply with international regulations, not even Chilean regulations, lawyer Rodrigo Lagos told Ciper after hearing the Supreme's ruling.

For his part, the sponsor counsel of the appeal, Mauricio Bascur, said that it is necessary to determine how and how the company will comply with the judgment regarding the formalities to be complied with by the document proving that the sensitive data were effectively deleted.
...

Fallo histórico: Suprema defiende privacidad de niña tras escaneo no autorizado de su iris por Worldcoin

En una decisión histórica, la Corte Suprema falló a favor de un recurso de protección interpuesto por el abogado Rodrigo Lagos, padre de una niña de 17

www.elciudadano.com

 

[searcher]

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the technology world by surprise on Thursday with the release of Operator, his company’s first AI agent that can act autonomously on the web.

But OpenAI is not Altman’s only venture that’s trying to capitalize on the popularity of AI agents.

Altman’s World project now wants to create tools that link certain AI agents to people’s online personas, letting other users verify that an agent is acting on a person’s behalf, according to its chief product officer, Tiago Sada.

Sam Altman's World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity | TechCrunch

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the technology world by surprise on Thursday with the release of Operator, his company's first AI agent that can act

techcrunch.com