Proof Of Humanity Worldcoin Releases Audit Report, Criticism Of Data Collection Practices Continues To Increase

Ord, an eye-slice scanner from Worldcoin. (photo: worldcoin)

JAKARTA - On July 28, the Proof of Humanity Worldcoin protocol released its audit report along with increasing criticism of the practice of data collection. This new audit report was carried out by the security consulting firm Nethermind and the Lead Authority.

According to accompanying announcements, Nethermind discovered 26 safety concerns with the protocol, of which 24 were "identified to have been fixed" during the verification phase, while one other problem was addressed and another was recognized.

Meanwhile, the Lead Authority found three problems and provided six suggestions, all "completed or planned to be resolved", reads the announcement.

Worldcoin first attracted attention in 2021 when announcing that it would provide free tokens to users verifying their humanitarian identity by scanning their eye slices using a device called "Orb." The project was co-founded by Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI's artificial intelligence developer.

At the time, Altman and other team members argued that the AI bot would be an increasing problem on the internet if people didn't find a way to verify their humanitarian identity without compromising privacy. According to the documentation of this protocol, the Orb generates hash from scanning the user's slice but does not store a copy of the scan of the slice.