The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) of Brazil has initiated an inspection process against World, a company founded by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, known for ChatGPT. The company has begun an iris scanning project called World ID, aimed at distinguishing humans from AI-generated profiles.
This service is currently being offered at ten locations in São Paulo, where participants receive 25 Worldcoin tokens—valued at approximately R$ 340—for free registration. Worldcoin has already launched similar initiatives in countries including the United States, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, and Germany.
On November 12, the ANPD met with World representatives to clarify details about the project and formally requested additional explanations. Altman and entrepreneur Alex Blania co-founded Tools for Humanity, the company behind World.
The iris scanning initiative aims to combat fake profiles on websites and social media, potentially replacing traditional CAPTCHA systems that verify human users. The ANPD's oversight is to ensure compliance with Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD).
According to World ID's official site, the project seeks to create a private, self-sovereign, and decentralized solution for verifying human identity online, with the goal of establishing the largest network of authentic individuals on the internet as a public asset.
The scanning process utilizes an Orb camera, generating a unique numeric code for each user that is deleted immediately after use. In the second half of 2023, the company opened three service locations in São Paulo, stating that the initiative was merely a test without plans for permanent services at this time.