World is private by design.

Privacy and security

In the age of AI, World is the most private and anonymous network of real humans.

To make this happen, the protocol is constantly being upgraded. This means that the privacy and security of the system keep improving.

The protocol’s goals are simple but powerful:

  • Secure: World doesn’t store your biometrics

    World uses anonymous cryptographic fragments to ensure there is no centralized database of biometrics anywhere.

  • Private: World doesn’t track your activity

    World uses unlinkable attestations to disentangle and anonymize the digital actions of users.

  • Open: World opens up its technology

    World open sources its hardware and software technology and invites anyone, from independent researchers to regulators, to test and verify its integrity.

Unlike legacy networks, you don’t have to take anyone’s word for these promises — the protocol proves them in public, release by release.

Privacy developments
2025
2024
2023

Privacy principles

  • Can’t be evil > don’t be evil

    World is built with trust-minimized technologies that limit misbehavior—including by the development team. This means eliminating centralized control over the system wherever possible and trusting users to be the best stewards of their own data.

  • The protocol shouldn’t know who you are

    World minimizes the data footprint of users in the protocol as much as possible. This often requires the invention of new technologies, which are then open sourced so others may audit and adopt them.

  • Sunlight is the best disinfectant

    World always biases for opening up protocol systems. This means making core components accessible for external auditors and reviewers. The more this happens, the more secure the protocol.

world app

Privacy by core technologies

Orb

The Orb can tell you apart from everyone else — without storing any personal information, not even your name.

It captures images of your face and eyes to create a unique code, a mathematical representation that confirms you’re a real, distinct human. That code is immediately divided into secret shares — pieces that look completely random on their own and reveal nothing about you or the original code.

These shares are then securely compared across independent compute nodes using Anonymized Multi-Party Computation (AMPC) to ensure no one has registered more than once and no node learns anything about the underlying code.

That means no biometric data is ever stored or shared by World.

Discover More

World privacy FAQs

Dive into the FAQs

Privacy Whitepaper

Your data is owned and controlled by you

Open source status

Building a fully open source, decentralized network

Read the blog

The thinking, ideas and technology behind World