As AI agents flood the web, "prove you're human" is becoming the internet's most important primitive. The loudest answers ask for your body: World ID scans your iris, Humanity Protocol scans your palm. useHUMA takes the other road — proving a live human is present from behavior alone, with no hardware, no enrollment and no biometric registry. Here's the honest side-by-side.
| useHUMA (behavioral) | World ID (iris) | Humanity Protocol (palm) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you surrender | Nothing — behavior is observed in the browser; only statistical aggregates are stored. | An iris scan, captured by dedicated Orb hardware. | A palm scan, enrolled through their app or readers. |
| Hardware & enrollment | None. Works on the first visit, in any browser, on any device. | In-person enrollment at an Orb location. | Palm capture enrollment before first use. |
| Privacy model | Zero PII by architecture — no biometric template exists anywhere. | Biometric-derived ID; iris programs have drawn regulator scrutiny in several countries. | Biometric credential tied to your palm print. |
| Live human presence | Strong — every session is scored in real time from how it behaves. | Indirect — proves an account belongs to an enrolled human, not who is at the keyboard now. | Indirect — same limitation: enrollment ≠ live presence. |
| One-person-one-account | Moderate — behavioral history hardens over time, but there's no global biometric registry (by design). | Strong — that's exactly what an iris registry buys. | Strong (claimed) — palm uniqueness backs the credential. |
| Works for the everyday web | Yes — signups, logins, checkouts, forms, today, with one API call. | Only where users already hold a World ID and apps integrate it. | Only within its credential ecosystem. |
Yes — we marked competitors as stronger where they are. Hardware biometrics genuinely win at one-person-one-account. We think the surveillance price is too high for what most of the web actually needs.