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Early adopters in Mexico lend their eyes to global biometric project (www.reuters.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/486175 ([email protected])

Eager early adopters recently descended upon a Mexico City cafe where their eyes were scanned by a futuristic sphere, part of an ambitious project that ultimately seeks to create a unique digital identification for everyone on the planet.

Mexico is one of nearly three dozen countries where participants are allowing the sphere, outfitted with cameras and dubbed an orb, to scan their iris. The project's goal is to distinguish people from bots online, while doling out a cryptocurrency bonus as a incentive to participate.

The so-called Worldcoin project is a biometric verification tool led by Sam Altman, the chief executive of Open AI, and the crypto company he co-founded, Tools for Humanity.

This doesn't sound creepy at all... thoughts?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I renewed mine a month or two ago and didn't need it, but it might vary by facility you apply at. Mercifully the tech does not yet appear to be distributed enough to do away with normal passports. You can get a "biometric" passport though, that indicates you've biometrics on record.

But yes, after a bit of research; to any US citizens, you are not required to let them confirm your identity with a fingerprint, iris, or face scan. Instead you opt out while in line to your gate and ask for alternative id validation (i.e. having a human look at your ticket and passport picture).

Sorry to the rest of the world, they slipped this stupid shit in really lowkey not too long ago. I think it was off most peoples radar if they don't travel much. Plus, you know, our burning democracy etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the insight!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is this a NY only thing? I've never once had to do an iris scan for anything, and have a passport, DL, and everything (US citizen). I also haven't heard of anyone traveling here needing to it, though maybe it just never came up in conversation.

Also, as for replacing passports, international travel still requires one but for domestic travel, you can get a regular ID/DL in many states that acts as an ID at airports without the need of a passport.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

So the Department of Homeland Security wrote the rule that all non-citizens entering and exiting the country have to provide biometrics, so that is a national rule. That was 2019-ish I think.

As far as I understand it, the mechanics of the policy are up to the airports, so they may take photos for facial recognition against your passport photo while you're in line to go through the gate, or they have little fingerprint scanners, or iris scans.

From what I'm reading, airports that are doing this aren't dividing citizens and non-citizens but simply collecting on everyone in line as the default unless you opt out in person at that time (which you can only do as a US citizen). With something like a photo, people may not realize it's even happening which is why you've probably not heard people remark much.

As for the biometric passport, they are currently optional. They have a NFC chip like your credit card that contains all the basic info from your passport, but also includes any biometric data that has been collected. Like I say, when I applied a few months ago no biometrics were collected and I recieved your standard looking passport in the mail. So as of right now, no one is obligated to get one, but we all know how that goes.