According to online reports, World Foundation consultant Liam Horne said at Consensus 2025 that external disputes over the project's iris scanning technology are "often misunderstood" and that the claim that World or Altman owns user data is "actually the exact opposite" and that "the data never leaves the Orb device." Horne emphasized that the system was "designed for privacy protection from the bottom." The World Network converts biometric information generated by iris scans into World ID through a mechanism called "proof-of-personality" to verify that users are real and independent individuals. The project has recently expanded to six major cities in the United States, including Atlanta and San Francisco.