30s Summary

World has satirically criticized Spotify’s privacy policies through a social media post designed like Spotify’s “Unwrapped” reports. This comes as Spotify received backlash for its data use after partnering with Google’s AI services. World, a company offering anonymous verification services, is also contending with criticism and regulation, especially regarding its eye-scanning tech “Orbs”. Despite these challenges, World plans to provide a basic income for verified users and globally recognized anonymous identification. However, co-founder Sam Altman’s legal issues with Elon Musk and impending changes to US cryptocurrency regulations may further complicate the company’s plans.

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Recently, World (previously known as Worldcoin) made fun of the Spotify’s yearly “Wrapped” reports, by poking fun at the music streaming platform’s privacy policies.

They did this by posting an image on social media via their official World account. The image was captioned with, “World ID lets you & your actions stay anonymous online.”

The image was designed in the style of Spotify’s “Unwrapped” reports, which are personalized, data-driven usage reports. The tongue-in-cheek version from World contained humorous comments, like “to the human who played the Heavy Metal Sleep playlist every night for months,” followed by, “We don’t know anything about you (but we are intrigued).”

Some background information: Spotify’s Unwrapped reports have been widely praised for being shareable and encouraging user engagement, but they’ve also faced backlash for how they leverage user data and privacy. They’ve received a lot of negative feedback recently for their 2024 “Wrapped” reports after partnering with Google’s artificial intelligence services.

Meanwhile, although World is clearly having fun at Spotify’s expense, the verification company has also faced criticism and regulatory pushback. Their main offering, the World ID anonymous verification service, that relies on eye-scanning tech known as “Orbs”, has had its ups and downs. Once users get verified with World ID, they can claim token grants; however, they have to choose to do so.

Also, World has big plans. They aim to provide a guaranteed basic income for their World ID holders and create a globally recognized anonymous identification system. Picture this, you could transact and travel anonymously, but still meet necessary ID requirements.

Despite their ambitions, World still has legal hurdles to overcome, especially in the EU. They’ve had operation suspensions in Spain, Portugal and the Dominican Republic over data protection issues.

World is operating in the US, but their “Worldcoin” token isn’t because of regulatory uncertainty. However, this could change with President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to reform crypto and blockchain regulations.

There is a bit of a wrinkle, though. Sam Altman, World’s co-founder, has ongoing legal issues with Elon Musk about Altman’s AI firm, OpenAI. These issues could potentially complicate World’s plans. Considering Trump’s likely appointee for the position of “White House Cryptocurrency and AI Czar,” David Sacks, is closely aligned with Musk, it could make matters even tricker. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out for World and their plans to launch Worldcoin in the US.