World.org in the Philippines, the local arm of Tools for Humanity (TFH), the company co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has challenged the National Privacy Commission (NPC)’s cease-and-desist order (CDO) against its operations in the Philippines, calling it a “setback for responsible digital innovation” and a reversal of a year-long compliance process undertaken with Philippine authorities.
A growing rift within the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) over the controversial World.org iris-scanning program has drawn sharp criticism from data privacy advocates — including former National Privacy Commission (NPC) chair Raymund Liboro — who warned that the technology risks “turning human eyes into economic assets” and exploiting the poor under the guise of digital inclusion.
