Tools for Humanity (TFH), a contributor to the World project, has clarified its human verification technology does not collect people’s personal data.
The clarification was released after the Department of Provincial Administration issued a nationwide alert to local officials to monitor iris-scanning activities taking place in shopping malls throughout Thailand.
TFH, a technology company registered in San Francisco, California and Munich, Germany, is building World ID — a digital proof-of-human service for the artificial intelligence (AI) age.
TFH was co-founded by Alex Blania, the company’s chief executive, and Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, an AI company registered in the US state of Delaware.
“In an era in which AI can generate content and deepfakes indistinguishable from humans, this leads to problems like bot attacks, phishing, and a loss of online trust,” said Pakapol Thangtongchin, country manager of TFH (Thailand).
“World project’s mission is not to create an identity protocol. We are a ‘proof-of-human protocol’. We don’t need to know who you are — only that you are a unique human. Not only do World and Tools for Humanity not know who you are, you do not reveal who you are with this advanced privacy technology.”
The World project doesn’t purchase, store, or sell biometric data and is in compliance with all applicable local regulations, he said.
The private and secure technology aims to help protect Thais against digital fraud by distinguishing people from bots while online, he added.
The World project is building an open-source, decentralised network where elements of the hardware and software are already completely open source and can be examined by anyone.
This includes both the Orb hardware and World ID blockchain protocols. Independent audits by leading global firms such as Trail of Bits have been conducted and published openly for anyone to access, Mr Pakapol added.
Mr Pakapol said that the company’s eye-scanning Orb is a purpose-built camera to verify an individual’s unique “humanness”. He noted that it does not rely on persistent storage and cannot be used to track or identify individuals.
“The [World] project ensures compliance with all relevant, applicable Thai laws and we continue to have constructive dialogues with relevant regulators in Thailand to ensure the same.”
To advance this mission in Thailand, the World project announced the launch of World ID integrations, starting with the Ragnarok game. Integrations with Pantip, Eventpop, and Whoscall are set to be completed soon, with many more in the pipeline.
Mr Pakapol denied reports the company’s human verification service has been suspended in many countries.
The service is still available in most countries and regions worldwide, excluding Hong Kong, he said.
Before its launch in Thailand, Mr Pakapol said the company engaged in extensive discussions with various regulatory bodies, including the Personal Data Protection Committee, the Electronic Transactions Development Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
After introducing the Orb at the end of March this year in the country, there are now more than 2 million World App user accounts in Thailand as well as 1 million World ID users.
Fabian Bodensteiner, managing director and a founding team member of the World project, has introduced two important new initiatives.
First, the Orb Hackathon will invite cybersecurity experts and developers to test the Orb system, offering a bounty to successful participants who can identify vulnerabilities and further prove its security.
Second, an allocation of over 25 million baht will be invested into database and programmer development in Thailand to foster local ecosystem growth and technology adoption.
World ID now has over 15 million users worldwide and its World App has over 33 million accounts and has processed over 570 million wallet transactions.
