Regulators in the Dominican Republic are the latest to issue a red card to the World Foundation, with the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumidor) ordering the immediate suspension of the organization’s World ID Orb verification activities in the country.
A report from RC Noticias says the objection hinges on “abusive clauses” in the contracts the company requires people to sign in order to exchange their iris biometrics for cryptocurrency, as well as the digital identity it rather clunkily calls “proof of human.”
Pro Consumidor says the World Foundation’s contracts “do not comply with the legal precepts established in Law 358-05 and Resolutions 01-2009 and 008-2002, which regulate the process of analysis and registration of adhesion contracts in the Dominican Republic. In addition, violations of Law 172-13 on the protection of personal data were identified.”
The objection also notes that the firm, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania, does not operate an office in the Dominican Republic, which makes the principle of transparency problematic in terms of consumer access.
The suspension on biometric verification will be in effect until the regulator completes its investigative work.
Orbs back in Sao Paulo as World plays Sysyphean game with global regulators
In keeping with the global game of regulatory whac-a-mole that World’s story has become, the firm has re-launched in Brazil with World ID 3.0 – what a blog calls “the most enhanced version of World ID to date.”
“Verifications are returning to Brazil after pop-ups were first made available in 2023 as part of a global world tour and preview,” the company says. It cites so-called “bad bots” as a particular problem in the South American country.
The company has been on PR-watch since it rebranded from Worldcoin in October. Jason Carman, who produces a weekly documentary series on tech ventures, recently posted a behind-the-scenes video of the event. While occasionally slavish, the doc does explain why World went with a spherical biometric capture device in the vein of a BB-8 droid or a retro globe: “the whole project really is about the world, about enabling humanity to thrive. It is also tilted at a 23.5 degree angle, just like the rotational axis of the Earth.”
Benevolent branding doesn’t line up with multiple regulators’ alarms
World’s pitch continues to front the project’s altruism, telling us how much the Orb and the World ID network will help humankind navigate the advanced AI that Altman himself has, in part, unleashed. It is “privacy rocket science” that will keep people safe from malicious actors exploiting AI for identity fraud. It is an inclusive way to “uniquely identify real people” in ways that mobile phone-based technology is no longer able to. It is, as crypto tech in the messianic mode is often framed, an inevitability.
Except, for now, in the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Colombia, Kenya, South Korea, India, Argentina, Chile, and other nations that have launched investigations into, or asked pointed questions about, the company’s practices.
That said, it continues to expand its grant and bounty programs, recently increasing its maximum bug bounty payouts. It is back in Brazil and has launched in Costa Rica. Many more Orbs are rolling on the horizon. The company is reporting 380,000 sign-ups a week.
This mole does not sleep, and it burrows deep.
Article: Dominican Republic orders immediate suspension of World ID verification