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

This startup promises a common basic income that is properly distributed based on cryptocurrency. On the other hand, it simply created a biometric database of the poor body.

• Irene Guo's archive page
• Adi Lenardi's archive page

April 6, 2022

A 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman Ayu Ruswandy, a 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman living in the village of Gnungle, Indonesia, was woken up early last year. According to her email, a technology company was "distributing public support supplies" for her family at Islamic elementary school in the area, and she urged him to go.

Rusbandy joined a long line of residents with the women waiting at 6:00 in the morning. Any support was welcomed in the catastrophic hit by pandemic.

In the front row, World Coin Indonesian supporters collected electric messages and telephone numbers, scanned attractive shells and other biological data, using futuristic iron balls on the faces of residents. Farm officials were still in this area and distributing numbered tickets to the inhabitants waiting to maintain order.

Rusvandi asked the World Coin supporters what kind of charity group was, but as his mother said, he did not know anything about "they spend money."

It is not only Gunungluk that World Coin visited him. World coin supporters appear for a day or 2 days in the cities of the West Java (Indonesia), the university campus, subway station, market, and the central part of the top 10 countries, which are developing countries. Metric data was collected. In return, they are reported that they provided everything from free money (often in regional currency, but also world coi n-to token) to AirPods and future wealth. In some cases, they paid to local bureaucrats. But at the same time, there was almost no information about their real plans.

So what was the World Coin doing using all the rainbow scan data for many people, including Rusvandi? < SPAN> This startup promises a common basic income that is properly distributed based on cryptocurrency. On the other hand, it simply created a biometric database of the poor body.

rumor

Irene Guo's archive page

{Ruit}

Adi Lenardi's archive page

Proof of personhood

April 6, 2022

A 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman Ayu Ruswandy, a 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman living in the village of Gnungle, Indonesia, was woken up early last year. According to her email, a technology company was "distributing public support supplies" for her family at Islamic elementary school in the area, and she urged him to go.

Rusbandy joined a long line of residents with the women waiting at 6:00 in the morning. Any support was welcomed in the catastrophic hit by pandemic.

In the front row, World Coin Indonesian supporters collected electric messages and telephone numbers, scanned attractive shells and other biological data, using futuristic iron balls on the faces of residents. Farm officials were still in this area and distributing numbered tickets to the inhabitants waiting to maintain order.

Rusvandi asked the World Coin supporters what kind of charity group was, but as his mother said, he did not know anything about "they spend money."

So what was the World Coin doing using all the rainbow scan data for many people, including Rusvandi? This startup promises a common basic income that is properly distributed based on cryptocurrency. On the other hand, it simply created a biometric database of the poor body.

rumor

Irene Guo's archive page

{Ruit}

Adi Lenardi's archive page

April 6, 2022

A 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman Ayu Ruswandy, a 3 5-yea r-old furniture craftsman living in the village of Gnungle, Indonesia, was woken up early last year. According to her email, a technology company was "distributing public support supplies" for her family at Islamic elementary school in the area, and she urged him to go.

Look into the orb

Rusbandy joined a long line of residents with the women waiting at 6:00 in the morning. Any support was welcomed in the catastrophic hit by pandemic.

In the front row, World Coin Indonesian supporters collected electric messages and telephone numbers, scanned attractive shells and other biological data, using futuristic iron balls on the faces of residents. Farm officials were still in this area and distributing numbered tickets to the inhabitants waiting to maintain order.

Rusvandi asked the World Coin supporters what kind of charity group was, but as his mother said, he did not know anything about "they spend money."

It is not only Gunungluk that World Coin visited him. World coin supporters appear for a day or 2 days in the cities of the West Java (Indonesia), the university campus, subway station, market, and the central part of the top 10 countries, which are developing countries. Metric data was collected. In return, they are reported that they provided everything from free money (often in regional currency, but also world coi n-to token) to AirPods and future wealth. In some cases, they paid to local bureaucrats. But at the same time, there was almost no information about their real plans.

So what was the World Coin doing using all the rainbow scan data for many people, including Rusvandi?

A useless IOU

To answer this question and how WorldCoin’s registration and distribution process will be different, MIT Technology Review interviewed more than 35 people in six states – Indonesia, Kenya, Sudan, Ghana, Chile and Norway – who worked for WorldCoin, where scans were conducted, or who could not benefit from the role. We looked at scans during the Indonesian registration-event, read conversations in public network and mobile chat groups, and also familiarized ourselves with the review of WorldCoin’s billboards on Google Play and Apple Store. We spoke with WorldCoin CEO Alex Branja, sent the company a detailed list of investigations and issues, and received a briefing against the company.

Related Story

Our investigation revealed significant discrepancies between WorldCoin’s public messaging and what users encountered, given the main concerns in the defense of confidentiality. We found that the company’s backers used misleading advertising methods, collected more personal data than stated, and did not obtain significant informed consent. Such an act may not meet the joint criteria for the defense of the Union Euro (GDPR) - the possibility of such a thing in fact, as well as the law of the district, where the company's personal politicians would assume and ask users to accept it by agreement with the data.

In a video-interview, filmed from Erlangen (Germany) in early March, where the company makes its own ball, Brati explained that the company was still in the startup phase, in fact, he accepted the "friction".

"You know, no doubt," he said, but watching the company's tests in Serie A. This is a bunch of people trying to force something to work. It's not like Uber, where hundreds of people are doing it over and over again.

Two months before WorldCoin was spotted in the village of Rusbandi, a San Francisco-based company titled "Tools for Humanity" came out of stealth mode. Its product was WorldCoin.

WorldCoin's website described it as a new currency unit that would be collectively distributed on Ethereum and distributed correctly among the largest number of people. Anyone around the world who agrees to scan the Rainbow Shell with the support of a purposefully created device can receive a share of the charity.

This area was important due to the fact that WorldCoin is based on the principle of loyalty, it is said on the website: everyone is obliged to get their share of digital currency units - and nothing more. To eliminate the possibility of double enrichment, Illuminati Field examines the iris of the eye and other biometric data of members, and then uses their uniqueness as the center of the considered human and WorldCoin-data.

"I was interested in this baggage as what happens with a huge redistribution of basic income and wealth in general," Sam Altman, co-founder of WorldCoin and former president of Silicon Plain's Y Combinator accelerator, first said about the company in an interview with Bloomberg, which it did last summer. According to his writing, WorldCoin was obliged to answer the question: "Is there a way to apply technology to solve it at scale?"

Taking a chance

The company is still just starting its own work, and its task is to gather 1 billion subscribers by 2023.

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The 27-year-old Blahnia, who joined WorldCoin soon after and completed his master's in physics at the California Institute of Technology, added: Cryptocurrency will solve that. (Blahnia and others used the text "WorldCoin" to refer to the company, not just the currency.)

But in addition to these good intentions, WorldCoin will also solve a key technical problem for Web3: a long-awaited third oreline, a blockchain-based worship service, where data and content are managed decentralized by individuals and groups, not a handful of technology companies.

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Blahnia said that for the current day "the right of anyone to belong to this new protocol" will be the "fastest" and "largest scale in cryptocurrency and Web3," and will solve and resolve one of the main tasks of Web3: conditional scarcity of users.

According to Blahnia's writing, biometric personhood will allow WorldCoin to solve another "very fundamental problem" of decentralized technology. For example, there is the risk of Sybil attacks, which emerge when many fake accounts create and control the network at once, making it less secure in a decentralized network where pseudonyms are expected. Inventing a Sybil-resistant persona is not easy, and this is considered a new barrier to the worldwide implementation of Web3.

The biometrics question

WorldCoin conducted a field survey in 24 countries. (From left) These marketing photos were taken in Sudan, Indonesia, Chile and Kenya.

Thanks to these two conclusions, BLATI says that WorldCoin has the ability to freeze on "everyone, for example, an open platform that can be applied as a human proof for distribution." This hides the possibility of WorldCoin. If it reaches the splash, this protocol has the ability to freeze in a universal certification method for a completely new generation of online. If so, the currency unit itself may be frozen as a more valuable thing. "Investors suggest that WorldCoin plans will benefit the world, and as a result, the prices of these promotions and tokens will rise," said the company sent by Electric Mail.

Probably, as a result, in addition to Altoman, the most common c o-supporters of Silicon Plain have invested in the plan. Long ago, Andrisen Hollowitz led an investment round of $ 100 million, and a startup estimate was tripled from $ 1 billion to $ 3 billion.

By the time he talked to Brania in March, World Coin had already scanned 450, 000 bodies and human body in 24 states. According to Global Bank, 14 of them are developing countries. Eight of them are Africa. The company plans to gather 1 billion subscribers by 2023.

WorldCoin-The central component of distribution was not only a super-technical area itself equipped with a modern camera and sensor, but also scanning the fascinating scale of the eyes, but also the highest resolution. The company's explanation was published on the blog, "The body, face, user's eyes, and their fascinating shells." Apart from this, in the form of consent to data transfer, the company pointed out that "no n-contact doppler radar detection of your heart rate, breathing, and other important indicators" will be performed. In response to our questions, World Coin has never used a way to detect relevant important symptoms, but actually deletes this expression from its own form of consent of data transfer. I mentioned. (When the annotation was announced, this word was left.)

Biometric information is used to generate the code "Irish" locally stored in Olba. According to WorldCoin representatives, this code is never transmitted, but it is used to confirm that this Irish already exists in the WorldCoin database. For this reason, according to the company, the new encryption method is used to protect the confidentiality known as zero knowledge. If the algorithm finds a match, that means that a person has already tried to register. Otherwise, the person has passed the uniqueness verification, and can proceed with the registration by providing an email address, telephone number, or a QR code to access the WorldCoin wallet. These are all done within a few seconds.

WorldCoin claims that biometric information remains in ORB and is deleted after loading. At least if the company recognizes the iris and completes a neural network of artificial intelligence that reveals fraud. Until then, there is only an ambiguous explanation such as "personal data is ...". It is unknown how this data is processed in addition to vague explanations such as protected and encrypted channels. The blog states, "We collect more data and save more data on field tests." "When our algorithm is completely trained, we will delete all biometric data collected during field tests."

WorldCoin answered our questions just before entering the printed article, and the public version of their system did not explain how this would happen, but need to send companies. From this, we reported that it would save a new user from transferring biological authentication data.

But we know how the onboarding system works. In order to drop WorldCoin on a new user smartphone, the company has signed a contract with a local job operator, which manages registration in their countries and regions.

These companies say they will provide "fair transactions" with data. Is that so?

Companies such as CloudFactory, IMERIT, and Samasource promise that datasets will be paid enough and will be provided by caring employees. This is a difficult business.

The operator submits a job application, receives an interview, and is approved by the WorldCoin team, but the company's representative, Anastasia Gorovina, is an e-letter, and the operator is "an independent contractor, and in the WorldCoin staff. No, "he emphasizes. Therefore, they work without a contract or payment guarantee, and receive a fee for collecting biometric data from each person. Gorovina added, however, "we must follow local laws and rules, including local labor laws."

Operators from these countries receive fees with stable teth coins. Stable is a type of cryptocurrency, and its cost is linked to conventional currency, usually US dollars. They determine the bets paid by the subcontractor (usually local currency) and the working conditions (ful l-time, incomplete working days, or temporary gigs). Both national operators and ORBES subcontractors have obtained incentives to register as soon as possible due to the payment fee mechanism.

On the other hand, new users are currently receiving at least $ 15 WorldCoin dollars in Biometrics Scan and entering the WorldCoin wallet, but the total amount available is for the later recruiters for later recruiters. After the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment after the recruitment It has been changed to $ 25 for the recruit after the recruitment after the recruitment. Some users receive the full amount at once, while others are $ 50 a week. Blati says that these differences are designed to control the most effective incentives. In any case, WorldCoin is not stable and the currency has not yet been released, so the company states in writing that "WLD tokens are equivalent to $ 20."

Reeling them in

In order to understand the incentive of the user, some proposed to obtain bitcoin instead of this $ 20 and make it possible to actually cash. A WorldCoin's view states that "the most active user chose to save WLD," but most of the interviews we interviewed have approved the opposite.

However, since the cashing function ended last fall, the promise of receiving WorldCoin is now a $ 25 or $ 25 receipt from the company. In fact, all the tokens that users can have in the digital wallet are zero yen.

WorldCoin users are participating in the company for various reasons.

"Curious" is a common phrase. Another reason was that the spherical operator was "good person", or his brothers, cousins, and classmates. Some have hoped for the following bitcoin. Some people have lost their work and income during the pandemic. The civil war broke out and some had fallen in despair. At least one was trying to buy lunch. At least one was trying to buy lunch. Many suspected that this was a scam, but there were few people who could refuse.

"I was curious and thought it couldn't hurt to give it a try," he recalls.

But his doubts were quickly pointed out. Neither the company's supporters in the space nor the firm's officials could answer his simple questions about WorldCoin. After searching online and finding nothing, he concluded that it was in fact a scam. He thought that the mysterious airdrop was actually a global data collection disguised as some kind of secret offline airdrop, a strategy for the cryptocurrency plan to release charity tokens to boost adoption.

As a result, WorldCoin's supporters had the opportunity to help almost all residents first, before potential users could get their hands on the new currency. Regarding the recruitment of users for the new cryptocurrency, he asks: "Why did WorldCoin choose low-income communities instead of crypto enthusiasts and communities in the first place?"

When WorldCoin unveiled its "We're Here!" poster last October, it faced immediate backlash.

As NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said on his Twitter, "Don't make catalogs of eyeballs. Don't use biometrics to counter fraud. In general, don't use biometrics for anything. Human corpses are not counters."

Ayus Ruswandi, pictured in front of his WorldCoin workspace in Gunung Gul, West Java, had many questions about why the company needed iris scans, but he never got answers to any of them. By the time he talked to Brania in March, World Coin had already scanned 450, 000 bodies and human body in 24 states. According to Global Bank, 14 of them are developing countries. Eight of them are Africa. The company plans to gather 1 billion subscribers by 2023.

Many questioned WorldCoin's privacy protocols, especially since the company hadn't yet published a white paper or made its private code available for external review. It's like the company is creating a bulk (hash) database of people's iris scans (to be "fair") and then subverting the results by saying, "I deleted the scans!" Yes, they are storing the *hashes* generated by the scans. But they are storing the *hashes* generated by the scans.

The question was questioned about the safety of the equipment. Associate Professor Jeremy Clark, a specialized encryption of the University of Concordia's University of Engineering Information Systems, has questioned the safety of the sphere. In other words, this is an economic problem. If this project succeeds, the attempts to realize it will be more profitable. "

20 % of coins have already been distributed, 10 % are distributed to ordinary WorldCoin employees, and 10 % are also distributed to investors like Andrisen Hollowitz.

In addition, many representatives in the blockchain world do not agree with the main prerequisites of the fact that WorldCoin was trying to create. Creating a unified identity on the Web3 is an annoying movement that has been a clear goal of changing its appearance to blockchain, distributed finance, DAO ("distributed autonomous organization"), and is known as unknown. It was a thing.

Also, some people are not convinced that WorldCoin can really cover all the people around the world, and are paying attention to the current work of creating new ID paradigms instead. "Companies often declare this," said Pokari's identification expert who refused to comment with WorldCoin. News: Everyone will be your system, so let's move and talk about how to solve the problem. "In terms of online identification.

Brati and his team believe that criticism is not true. "Most of our teams have been dealing with cryptocurrencies ... so we are very concerned about this (confidentiality)," he said in an interview with Mit Technology Review. Ta. "I can fully understand the concerns," he said, but he believes that this is a "emotional reaction" rather than "objective criticism." According to him, the critics have lost sight of how the World Coin protocol can protect the confidentiality after the development is completed.

Director Stefani Schucas, Director of the University of Clarkson University, says that it is possible because biometric technology has recently succeeded. One of the latest trends is "template protection," which converts biometric data using encryption technology. "If you save this data, it is impossible to regain the first biometric data," even if it is stolen, "she says.

Operating blind

However, according to his sentence, the fundamental cause that this method has not been used at all is that cryptographic rebellion often leads to a decrease in productivity. Template security systems compare new biometric data with existing biometric prototypes, but compare the interpretation of data in a computer method that supports hash and code. According to the text, the possibility of Sukel highlight mistakes, in fact, preparing a "more difficult comparison of biometric data in this encrypted space", but deletes the latest benefits in the field of template defense. Some of these flaws are actually added.

The protection of the template sounds like this kind of possibility prepared by WorldCoin, but SHUKER does not look at the more thorough Infe other than their code or the report on the WorldCoin blog. It warns that declaring it is not easy. To detect a WorldCoin Sulilag backcode, MIT Technology Review repeats many times, in fact, this happens in a certain number of weeks of a certain numbe r-we first in February. Since I contacted the company.

In addition, the company's own statement states: "I emphasize that we are not collecting data for this purpose, like almost all other technology companies, to draw out their profits and observe users. Visuvi, our purpose. Work is to use this data most to the development of algorithms that minimize fraud and enhance the vertical degree of user. "

World Coin representatives used the full range of tactics and interesting services that were hard to understand to attract new users, as described in the text of many people who said in Mit Technology Review.

According to the first text of Mohamad Afmed Abdalbaji, Sudan's four former operators, when they started their work in this country last March, "Digital currency units, including no electrical and e-mail. It was not easy to explain. In return, they held a competition that distributed AirPod and started registration, and registered within 20, 000 people.

Islamic secondary schools in West Java, Indonesia, are applied for seminars on the company's World Coin Cryptocurrency. The coordinator of the student event is a secondary education institution Muhammad Hilham Zeyn, which is recommended to read the application and approve it below, he is effectively the purpose of the seminar. Is not the approval of a student investing in the digital currency. "

"Why was WORLDCOIN mainly for lo w-income society and not for cryptocians or communities?"

{space}

But the guests - at least one of them is actually 15 years old that the situation of using WorldCoin was not satisfied, and also our reporter's research first another story. During the 45-minute lesson, WorldCoin employees were very busy registering a dozen students, they could help them download the application, subscribe to electronic emails, scan their biometric data to finally give information about cryptocurrency, WorldCoin itself, about how members have every chance to bid unanimously or take unanimously. (At least the students received their share of the WorldCoin that is mined every week).

A little while ago, in 20 villages in West Java, an event was held in reverse to recruit new users, and almost everyone was attracted to production, like Ayus Rusvandi.

"This was during the pandemic, when the government usually distributed social assistance packages," explained Eche Mulyan, headmaster of the Medicallers of the secondary school of the source, who on the other day said that his secondary institution applied as a WorldCoin registration area. "Because the note came from a higher-than-average official - the head of the local administration Ade Irma, who could help WorldCoin coordinate the registration brochure in the village - I had no chance of succeeding in the request," said Mulyana.

Mulyana says Irma also paid a fee of IDR 2, 000 (about 14 US cents at the time of writing) for each person who was scanned. According to Mulyana's estimates, 170 people were screened, for a total of IDR 340, 000 (about 23, 800 US baht, just under 10% of the average monthly salary of a city employee).

Heleni Mulyana and Irma Bos, the regional heads who confirmed these events, said that the funds were in fact given "for coffee and cigarettes." Irma Bos also said that it was "coffee and cigarettes money."

A view of Gunung Guruku, one of the roughly 20 villages WorldCoin visited for its recruitment.

Muhammad Fadly Instead, they came out of a company titled PT Sandina Abadi Nusantara, whose co-founders were a man named Muhammad Rezang Itisan, who became WorldCoin's "most effective operator" (according to WorldCoin's blog on the company's launch), and his mother. The company was the legal entity through which WorldCoin Indonesia carried out its activities, and Itisan's mother's direct duties included liaising with district government officials to coordinate staffing.

Crypto-colonialism

Ixan said to MIT Technology Review, effectively, "I do not pay the village, but there is definitely funding for people who cooperated in the collecting population on the spot."

Even if Muriyan does not use the village method, it is not the purpose, but these fees are considered to be illegal in cooperation with Indonesian laws in fighting with corruption and bribery, except for rare exceptions.

In response to questions about the payment of agricultural bureaucrats, WorldCoin supporters said they had nothing to do with the incident, and began investigating them to recognize the details. Gorovina said, "Some of these payments are, for example, payment of important proposals for organizing work at school, and payments and licenses that are important for work in specific places. It seems that there was a possibility that it could be honestly dealing with honest business expenses. " This is inconsistent with the description as a bureaucrat.

WorldCoin also quoted other examples regarding Sudan's AirPod distribution and Indonesian school providers, "Independent, isolated efforts by district ball operators" and "We are actually operators. An interesting user who is curious to focus on giving motives to register.

Some residents would generally receive all funds, as the January report was said to return to the village to make money to make up for it. , In fact, it is currently fluctuating. The opportunity to replace WorldCoin from the wallet for them in digital development was not aware of the application to control the application. < SPAN> Ixan said to MIT Technology Review, in effect, "there is a fund for those who do not pay the village, but definitely cooperated in gathering population on the spot."

Even if Muriyan does not use the village method, it is not the purpose, but these fees are considered to be illegal in cooperation with Indonesian laws in fighting with corruption and bribery, except for rare exceptions.

In response to questions about the payment of agricultural bureaucrats, WorldCoin supporters said they had nothing to do with the incident, and began investigating them to recognize the details. Gorovina said, "Some of these payments are, for example, payment of important proposals for organizing work at school, and payments and licenses that are important for work in specific places. It seems that there was a possibility that it could be honestly dealing with honest business expenses. " This is inconsistent with the description as a bureaucrat.

WorldCoin also quoted other examples regarding Sudan's AirPod distribution and Indonesian school providers, "Independent, isolated efforts by district ball operators" and "We are actually operators. An interesting user who is curious to focus on giving motives to register.

Data lapses and policy holes

In fact, as Muluana, the head of the secondary education institution, recall, most people thought that the event was operated by the government. "World coins were foreign companies and needed to support farmers," he said.

Some residents would generally receive all funds, as the January report was said to return to the village to make money to make up for it. , In fact, it is currently fluctuating. The opportunity to replace WorldCoin from the wallet for them in digital development was not aware of the application to control the application. Ixan said to MIT Technology Review, effectively, "I do not pay the village, but there is definitely funding for people who cooperated in the collecting population on the spot."

Even if Muriyan does not use the village method, it is not the purpose, but these fees are considered to be illegal in cooperation with Indonesian laws in fighting with corruption and bribery, except for rare exceptions.

In response to questions about the payment of agricultural bureaucrats, WorldCoin supporters said they had nothing to do with the incident, and began investigating them to recognize the details. Gorovina said, "Some of these payments are, for example, payment of important proposals for organizing work at school, and payments and licenses that are important for work in specific places. It seems that there was a possibility that it could be honestly dealing with honest business expenses. " This is inconsistent with the description as a bureaucrat.

• In fact, as Muluana, the head of the secondary education institution, recall, most people thought that the event was operated by the government. "World coins were foreign companies and needed to support farmers," he said.
• Mixed messages and incorrect information were not required. The ORBAS operator we talked about, often assigned to get the feel, in many cases, in accordance with the number of people in the property they had with all the opportunities they have registered. He mentioned a method that did not receive sufficient information from the hired WorldCoin supporters. (WorldCoin actually requires observation, what to give to the stat e-level ORB operator of the Code of Conduct, a su b-operator, and that it is actually separated from the committee based on the number of registrations. Ta).
• He lamented that he did not receive "simple study or bottom about World Coin". According to his text, there is only one command he received in return. "The rest was up to my public marketing skills."
• Brian Membee met the World Coin supporter for the first time on his own laboratory campus in Nacour, Kenya. He scanned and then worked as a job operator.

Brian Otieno

And he was not alone. Whilis Okachi, a student at Institute University in Nairobi, is hired to freeze a job operator, like Members, and then personally scanned, and has been involved in this case for funding. Ta. "You don't have them, but someone invites them for you," He added that in his opinion, WorldCoin feels that he doesn't have a lot of money. Explained, and as a result they were signed up. "In the tw o-day work, Okachi registered 50 and gained 100 ks (0, 88US) per set of biometric data brought.

According to WorldCoin spokesperson Golovina, "All users who register during the test are provided with full information about what data will be collected and how it will be used, and must give their consent before being allowed to register. Anyone who consents to the collection and use of biometric data can withdraw their consent at any time, and their data will be deleted."

But none of the people we interviewed were told directly -- or, in the case of the sphere operator, by anyone else -- that they were "test users," that photos and videos of their faces and 3D body maps would be taken and used to train "algorithmic fraud prevention areas" to "distinguish people," that their data would be treated differently than others, and that they could ask to have their data deleted.

Angel Rodriguez, a former subway security guard in Santiago, Chile, recalled checking a box agreeing to the terms of use in the WorldCoin app, but the instructions were in English, a language he could not read. Moreover, the app linking to the data consent form was not available until "late 2021," WorldCoin said, at which point field testing had been ongoing for at least a year.

"That's manipulation"

New users were sometimes asked to provide additional personal information, but Worldcoin said it never asked for it. Nearly everyone we spoke to asked for an email address to log into the wallet (even after Worldcoin introduced a QR code for login). Some also asked for a phone number.

Golovina, in multiple emailed statements, denied that email addresses or phone numbers were required for registration. "We make some features available to users who choose to provide a phone number or email address, including the ability to send and receive Worldcoin, but such features are always optional." Worldcoin did not explain what else users could do with the token if they could not send or receive.

In Nairobi, some students said Orb operators took photos of their IDs to confirm they were "not robots." Worldcoin said Orb operators may ask for national IDs, but they have never asked users to submit national IDs.

When we shared these views with our respondents, they did not recognize their personal skills. Mthembey stressed that personal information is never optional and that it is impossible to register for a job without having an email or phone. “This CEO is lying,” he said (misrepresenting Golovin’s statement as Brania’s).

Mohammad Ahmed Abdalbaji, one of the four Orb operators employed in Sudan, added that it was his team’s efforts to convince WorldCoin to add a phone number as a registration method. “Before working in Sudan, I used email as my main personal number, but we told them that it doesn’t work in Sudan. Many students don’t even have email and use their mobile phones to register on public networks,” he said.

Researchers studying transactions with the southern tech scene were alarmed by WorldCoin’s actions but were not completely surprised.

Payal Arora, digital anthropologist and author of The Next Billion Users: Digital Life Beyond the West, said: According to the text, because data protection laws are stricter in Europe and the United States, large operators in those regions don't have the opportunity to get all the data they need from their citizens, forcing them to turn to developing countries.

Indeed, Worldcoin is not available in the United States or China due to regulatory restrictions, according to a company blog post. Bloomberg reports that the company has not yet stopped field testing in other countries, including Turkey and Sudan, for similar reasons. Finally, while Worldcoin has signed up some users in the United States for a demo version held at a cryptocurrency conference, the company does not consider its own activities in the United States a form of field testing.

It is simply more profitable and easier to do similar data collection work in spaces where people do not have sufficient funding or legal protection.

Forget all those people

Rumor

Pete Howson, a senior lecturer at the Northumbria Institute who studies cryptocurrencies in international development, sees Worldcoin's own family's influence as crypto-colonialism. "Experiments with blockchain and cryptocurrencies are forced on vulnerable communities primarily because ... those who are doing so don't have every opportunity to fight back," he told MIT Technology Review in an email.