SAN FRANCISCO — Tools for Humanity’s World ID system, which uses iris and facial recognition via a device called ‘the Orb’ to verify human identity online, has gained traction among major platforms as bot-driven fraud rises. The startup, co-founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and German entrepreneur Alex Blania, says nearly 18 million people have verified their humanness using World ID.
The Orb captures distinct features of a person’s iris and face to generate a unique 12,800-digit “iris code.” This code is stored in a user’s phone app and used as proof of human identity without revealing personal information. Tools for Humanity insists that biometric data is encrypted, sent to the user’s device, and subsequently deleted. Trevor Traina, the company’s chief business officer, stated, “This is not a scan. It takes a photo, which is then destroyed. I detest the word ‘scan.’”
Traina acknowledged early communication challenges, admitting, “The company initially struggled to explain the technical safeguards. That allowed misconceptions around eye-scanning to spread.” The Orb was temporarily restricted in several European countries over privacy concerns but is now located in high streets and shopping centres across cities in the U.K. and Germany.
Digital fraud continues to escalate, with bots accounting for more than half of all internet traffic and used to fake page views, clicks, and user sessions. Juniper Research estimates global losses from digital advertising fraud will exceed $131 billion by 2030, up from $56 billion in 2025. Traina warned, “We’re entering a period where bots can sound, look, and behave almost indistinguishably from humans online. Every day platforms are at risk of becoming unreliable.”
Major companies are adopting World ID integrations. Zoom, Docusign, and Tinder have announced support for aspects of its verification system, while integrations with Shopify and Okta are underway. Reddit COO Jen Wong suggested some form of “proof of human” verification may become inevitable to preserve trust online.
Tools for Humanity has also developed a product called Concert Kit to combat ticket-scalping bots. Traina referred to it as “our solution to the Taylor Swift problem,” referencing the 3.5 billion system requests Ticketmaster received in a single day during the presale for The Eras Tour. Much of the company’s infrastructure is open-source to enable independent security scrutiny. Criticism has emerged, with Edward Snowden posting on X, “Don’t catalogue eyeballs,” after Altman first revealed the World project.