Tools for Humanity?

Waking up to privacy

I was having breakfast with the TV on in the background when something the news anchor said caught my attention. The news is usually about the latest crime figures, whether Santiago's metro is running, or tips for getting through March. This time was different: the story was the uproar over iris scans in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Once I sat down in front of the TV I assumed it was an international story, that the footage wasn't from Chile. I was wrong: all of it was happening here. The newscast opened by explaining that at least two hundred thousand people had already registered their irises in exchange for 20,000 “pesos” (crypto)

What was this? What company was behind it?

The company behind it is Tools for Humanity, which is also behind the “Worldcoin” project. Both say they are building the largest financial and human identity network while preserving identity and handing ownership to people, with the goal of “providing universal access to the global economy regardless of your country or background, establishing a place for all of us to benefit in the age of artificial intelligence”.

Its founders are Sam Altam (CEO of OpenAI) and Alex Vania (Caltech), who have spoken about how important this project is for fair, safe access to new technologies and to the financial system.

But beyond the statements, how does the technology work? World ID is a global identity network. People have to download the app and scan their iris with a physical device called the “Orb”, which uses “multispectral sensors to verify humanness and uniqueness and issue an Orb-verified World ID, with all images deleted immediately on the device by default”. A unique code is then created for that user, which can be verified at any other time or business.

Reasonable doubts

What is interesting is that this is biometric data (sensitive, unrepeatable — and that is precisely why anyone should be wary of a company holding it), and every aspect described sounds like a dream for the correct use of information. But we come back to the start. The incentive is not in the technology and its correct use. On the contrary: for this network to work it needs identities, and in this case those identities are “acquired” for a monetary payment (bitcoin) that lands in a virtual wallet, with success measured by how many users join the network.

These doubts have also reached the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), which ordered “a precautionary measure against Tools for Humanity Corporation requiring it to stop the collection and processing of personal data it is carrying out in Spain under its Worldcoin project, and to block the data already collected. The AEPD has received several complaints against this company alleging, among other things, insufficient information, the collection of minors' data, and that withdrawal of consent is not allowed.”

And in Chile? The law is still working its way through Congress, and there is no specialized body (an agency or any other) for the protection of personal data that could answer the reasonable doubts about the processing of data that is specially protected around the world.

But here is a fact: if 200,000 people have already handed over some of their most important information, is that an exercise of their own will, or is there instead a lack of knowledge and education about how much personal data matters? People often say “companies already have all our data”, but that does not excuse anyone from understanding how important it is to look after it, preserve it and use it properly.

Education is key so that these ever-faster processes can be understood in full, and so that everyone can tell without difficulty what is acceptable and what is not.