[getmeinrn]

Here's EPIC's statement on why Worldcoin is a "potential privacy nightmare":

>Worldcoin is a potential privacy nightmare that offers a biometrics-dependent vision of digital identity and cryptocurrency, and would place Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity company at the center of digital governance. Worldcoin’s approach creates serious privacy risks by bribing the poorest and most vulnerable people to turn over unchangeable biometrics like iris scans and facial recognition images in exchange for a small payout. Mass collections of biometrics like Worldcoin threaten people’s privacy on a grand scale, both if the company misuses the information it collects, and if that data is stolen. Ultimately, Worldcoin wants to become the default digital ID and a global currency without democratic buy-in at the start, that alone is a compelling reason not to turn over your biometrics, personal information, and geolocation data to a private company. We urge regulatory agencies around the world to closely scrutinize Worldcoin.

https://epic.org/epic-statement-on-privacy-risks-of-worldcoi...

[Twirrim]

> unchangeable biometrics

Except for, say, glaucoma, detached retinas, injuries, all sorts of stuff that can impact the eyes.

Sorry, you've been involved in a serious accident, you can no longer get your money!

[drewry]

They address this in the whitepaper[0]:

> To validate the quality of the algorithms at scale, their performance was evaluated by collecting 2.5 million pairs of high-resolution infrared iris images from 303 different subjects. These subjects represent diversity across a range of characteristics, including eye color, skin tone, ethnicity, age, presence of makeup and eye disease or defects.

> It is important to note that many health conditions, like cataracts to a certain degree, do not impede iris biometrics. Already today, iris biometrics surpass the inclusivity of other PoP verification alternatives like official IDs since less than 50% of the global population has digitally verifiable identities. However, if the proof of personhood mechanism becomes essential for society, it is important that eventually every single person can verify if they want to. Although not currently established, there could be specialized verification centers to facilitate alternative means of verification for individuals with eye conditions, via e.g. facial biometrics. The introduction of alternative means of verification for World ID could potentially create loopholes.

[0] https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/

[samstave]

Can the blind auto-opt-out of retina scans - I mean, they cannot argue for or against validity of their retina/eye scans in any format.

[baby]

Isn’t it the same as losing your keys, phone, wallet, passport, etc.?

[ilaksh]

Good point, and I'm not saying giving control to this random group makes sense, but at the same time, actual governments seem to be completely failing.

The plan that governments have for resolving the geopolitical and economic problems seems to be WWIII. And then things like WorldCoin, but very poorly implemented, and people already distrust the government so much that those ideas never even reach lawmakers since they know they won't be accepted.

The thing is though that humans may not be able to survive without a truly functional international government. And it also has to integrate with technology since that is ubiquitous now.

There just isn't a way to do it without some kind of identification.

Not trying means we will still descend into a cyberpunk dystopia.

And then after hundreds of millions die in WWIII, we would still end up getting our irises scanned. It would just be administered by the superintelligent Chinese police robots. And we would also all have to learn Chinese and would be subjected to the CCP's social credit system.

[calderknight]

Not very compelling. How exactly is it a potential privacy nightmare? Which aspect of whose privacy is at risk in what potential situation?

[zorrolovsky]

The threat is so broad that giving examples is trivial. One that immediately comes to mind: Imagine science discovers that 99% of people with a certain feature in their iris is likely to develop colon cancer. The discovery leads to insurance companies purchasing iris data from OpenAI behind the scenes. A lot of poor people suddenly would get insurance mysteriously declined, or their policies would include a hidden clause in fine print stating that colon cancer is not covered.

[sillysaurusx]

Imagine choosing a single password that can’t be changed. Sure, you can’t forget it, but if someone ever discovers it, you’re toast.

The fallback is probably 2FA. But we already use 2FA.