Worldcoin to end storing users' personal data

Although Worldcoin WLD -5.04% has always maintained it is highly protective of peoples' biometric data when scanning their eyeballs to prove they are human, the project is now implementing a plan designed to build additional trust.

With the implementation of what Worldcoin calls "Personal Custody," when people sign up for a World ID, they will no longer be given the option to have their biometric data stored and encrypted. Now, instead, the biometric data "captured by the orb and used to generate the iris code during World ID verification” will be held on people’s own personal devices — in most cases a smartphone — and users then can decide what to do with the data, including deleting it if they choose to.

The project's personal custody plan was first teased back in December when Worldcoin announced details for its World ID 2.0, dubbed "a human passport for the internet."

Tools for Humanity's Tiago Sada told The Block that the Worldcoin project has always taken privacy seriously, but views the personal custody initiative as an opportunity to bolster the level of trust felt by potential users who have yet to sign up. “Even though everything was deleted by default before, definitely now the fact that users have control over what to do with their data, definitely does give you that peace of mind, not needing to trust anyone,” he added.

Sada is head of product, engineering and design at Tools for Humanity, the lead software contributor behind the Worldcoin project. Tools for Humanity was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Worldcoin scrutinized, banned

Worldcoin has signed up about 4.5 million people since launching about eight months ago, according to the project’s website. During that time, it has been scrutinized several times by different government agencies. Most recently, Spain banned Worldcoin for up to three months as the country’s data protection watchdog investigates the project further. Worldcoin has also been scrutinized for giving out WLD tokens to people who sign up, many of whom reside in less-developed nations.

Previous to the rollout of World ID 2.0 and personal custody, people signing up for Worldcoin had two options: either to have their biometric data immediately deleted by the orb after being verified as human or, with the "Data Custody" option, users could allow the project to encrypt and store their private biometric details in "secure data stores."

"Data Custody will no longer be offered at the time of your orb visit," Worldcoin said in a statement. Now, “the information (images, metadata and derived data) generated at the orb and used to generate the iris code during World ID verification" will be held on peoples’ personal devices, instead of temporarily on orbs or permanently in data stores.

"This approach gives [users] control over the flow of this data, not just deletion, but any future use prior to being deleted. Previously, this information was deleted by default," Worldcoin also said in its statement.

Sada, while adamant that Worldcoin has always taken user privacy seriously, said the elimination of the option to allow Worldcoin to store personal data could allay the fears of people who have yet to sign up. "Data did used to get deleted by default, but you sort of had to trust us partially,” Sada also told The Block. "But now you don’t even have to do that. You and only you have control over your data … it definitely can give people more peace of mind.”

Orb software release to bolster transparency

While Worldcoin’s personal custody move may give more people "peace of mind" the project is also looking to bolster transparency by making "the core components of the Orb’s software … publicly available on GitHub," the project also announced on Friday.

"These new open components complement the previously-released hardware and iris recognition repositories, and their public availability marks significant progress in making the Orb’s image processing transparent and its privacy claims verifiable," Worldcoin said in its statement. "Today’s release includes all code on the Orb that is essential for capturing images and securely transferring them to World App."

As part of Worldcoin's "Tech Tree" development roadmap, the release of the orb software represents one more step towards Worldcoin’s eventual goal to make it possible for people to build their own orbs for human verification.