Worldcoin, which until a few days ago was unknown to many people, has become a recurring word in Portuguese conversations – but not for the best reasons. The company responsible for Worldcoin guarantees that only those over 18 can join the project and scan their iris in exchange for cryptocurrencies, but there are testimonies that contradict these statements.
Enticed by “easy money”, minors give up biometric data
To Expresso, Ricardo Macieira, regional director of Tools for Humanity for Europe, ensures that anyone who wants to have access to the Worldcoin digital passport (the World ID), You must be of legal age.
However, the number of testimonies that show that Worldcoin employees They approach minors and convince them to give up their biometric data in exchange for cryptocurrencies. Last summer, Miguel was one of those cases. At the age of 17, he was approached by Worldcoin employees while walking in the shopping center. “I was with my girlfriend, a man called us and we looked. Suddenly, he appeared with another colleague saying that it was a quick thing and that we would earn 50 euros without doing anything”. When asked to install the World App, he gave the excuse of not having access to the internet but the employee quickly made the application available. hot spot of your cell phone. “I had to give in and join in,” he tells Expresso.
“O process seemed smooth. Installing the application, entering my data and all this without having to deposit a single cent, so I thought I had nothing to lose.” Until you were asked to scan your iris. Frightened, he confronted the employee, who did not hesitate to respond that “the data would be deleted immediately”.
Miguel ended up accepting and at the end of the process he had 48 dollars in his account. However, it was never explained to him how he could raise the money — “they just wanted my account registered there.”
Enticed by the idea of making money easily, there are several young people, often minors, who go to the stands from Worldcoin. They know what they will receive in the end, but they don’t know what they have to give in return. “At my son’s school, the kids are hysterical about the easy money,” writes a mother on Facebook, after her son heard about the project from his colleagues. Ana Reis also expresses her concern regarding the intrusive approach by Worldcoin employees to minors. “Two weeks ago, my 16-year-old son and two friends were approached in the shopping center by Worldcoin employees who convinced them to have their iris scanned,” said the mother.
The vast majority of stands of Worldcoin in Portugal, a total of 17, are located in shopping centers or places where hundreds of people pass each day, such as Gare do Oriente, in Lisbon. Although there is no confirmation from those responsible for the project, these Locations seem to be strategically chosen to attract the attention of as many people as possible.
Many of these young people are not interested in cryptocurrencies themselves, but in the possibility of exchanging them for real money. Catarina, 26 years old, joined Worldcoin less than a month ago because she considered it an easy and quick way to make money. Unlike most cases, the young woman was influenced by her mother, who also joined in a trip to the shopping center. When she received the money, she told her daughter to join too. “In total I received 125 euros, but I know people who managed to earn the minimum wage in two weeks”he tells Expresso.
In Clayton’s case, he found out about the project through a co-worker. At 22 years old, he joined Worldcoin four months ago but has been investing in cryptocurrencies since he was 19. She says she has already earned 240 euros since allowing her iris to be scanned at the Campo Pequeno shopping center.
Some of the young people who joined Worldcoin mention the lack of information and knowledge on the part of the employees themselves. “During the process they don’t explain anything to you, especially because [os colaboradores] They seemed like people who knew less than us. They also didn’t know how to answer very well what little I asked,” says Ísis, 23 years old. The same happened with Catarina – “no one tells you the risks or explains very well what it is about.”
On social media, there are those who share their experience with Worldcoin, stating that iris scanning has already yielded several hundred euros.
Others seek to buy such cryptocurrencies claiming that in “in the future they may be worth much more” – On Facebook, for example, there are groups dedicated to buying and selling worldcoins.
Worldcoin is the target of investigations in several countries
Those responsible for the project have glorified its success, but Worldcoin’s practices have raised several doubts regarding the protection of user data. Although those responsible guarantee that biometric data is automatically deleted after scanning each user’s iris and creating World ID, to date there is no independent entity that proves that the project complies with data destruction and security.
“We will never sell or monetize our users’ data in any way,” reinforces Ricardo Macieira to Expresso, but the Risks associated with the possibility of a computer attack against Worldcoin are increasingly a concern. Several countries around the world have been conducting investigations to analyze Worldcoin’s practices regarding user privacy.
In Hong Kong, the Office of the Personal Data Privacy Commissioner (PCPD) announced that an investigation was underway into Worldcoin’s actions in the country. The PCPD stated that the presence of this project represents “serious risks to the privacy of personal data” of users and alerted the population to inform themselves before giving biometric data to Worldcoin.
In Europe, data protection agencies in countries such as France and the United Kingdom have received complaints about the risks that users run when handing over their biometric data. In Spain, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) is investigating the Worldcoin action in the country and has already prohibited the company from collecting iris images.
In Portugal, the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) revealed that it had already received “some complaints related to the collection of biometric data from minors” on Worldcoin. The Commission guarantees that complaints “will be relevant” when making a decision and calls on anyone who intends to hand over their biometric data, to read “carefully the conditions of data processing” and to reflect “on the sensitivity of the data being to supply”.
Investigations do not concern those who joined Worldcoin
The investigations into Worldcoin do not seem to intimidate those who willingly gave up their biometric data in exchange for cryptocurrencies. Some young people devalue the situation and compare the data provided to Worldcoin to the data that is shared with Google, Facebook or other platforms on the internet.
“A The conclusion I draw is that nothing is safe. Because even data provided to telecommunications companies or banks can be the target of computer attacks”, says Clayton. Catarina also shares a similar vision: “nI don’t feel like my data is 100% secure, but if we look at it, we often enter our data on worse websites.”
Clayton, Ísis and Catarina admit to Expresso that don’t regret of having transferred your biometric data to Worldcoin and that, probably, they would do it again.
How it works?
“Wbuild the largest financial and identity network in the world” is the motto of Worldcoin, the project managed by Tools for Humanity and co-founded by Alex Blania and Sam Altman, creator of OpenaAI and responsible for the famous ChatGPT. In 2022, Portugal was the European country chosen to test the version beta, which promises to revolutionize the world of technology and cryptocurrencies. To the long lines that form around shiny metallic spheres seem to highlight the strength that the project has gained in just a few years.
A startup American company, based in the United States and Germany, intends to create a global digital identity using biometric data, namely, the iris of each user. In other words, it consists of a way of distinguishing between humans and bots of Artificial Intelligence, since the iris is exclusive to each human being.
The project’s digital identity is known as World ID and it is said that it works like a “digital passport”. To create this identity, the interested person must download the World Appprovide your telephone number to the Worldcoin employee and then proceed to scan your iris using an “orb”, such shiny metallic sphere that looks like something out of a futuristic movie. In return, Worldcoin offers new users a certain number of tokens (cryptocurrencies) that have the same name as the project (worldcoins or, in short, WLD).
Sam Altman’s project offers about 10 tokens to each user by their iris. As of the date of this article, each token It was equivalent to around nine dollars (almost nine euros) but may change depending on the cryptocurrency market, the popularity of the project and its founder. The latest news on Altman and the project launch SORA from OpenAI, made the value of each WLD which experienced an increase of more than 200% in just 15 days, according to the magazine “Exam”. In addition to the initial tokens received after registration, each user receives three worldcoins every two weeks and if they manage to convince someone to join the project, they receive a total of 25 extra worldcoins.
According to Worldcoin’s official page, the project has more than four million registrations World ID all around the world with users of 120 different nationalities. Currently, the startup has a total of 2,000 orbs spread across 36 countries, where iris scanning is possible.
Article by Mariana Jerónimo, edited by Pedro Miguel Coelho
Tags: Worldcoin young people easy targets minors report approaches company illegal
--
