America’s largest bank has all the systems in place to track your movements, your spending, and your sustainability. And they’re doing it, not by the old plastic card in your wallet, but by biometric scanning devices to identify who’s in and out.
They’re already testing this on their own employees. On a small scale, JP Morgan Chase has equipped their new Manhattan HQ with all the equipment necessary to connect Biometric scanning with digital IDs, buying and selling.
You and your body parts are the last connecting factor for coming system of control.
Because your body consumes O2, food, and produces waste (that requires energy to manufacture), digital IDs are deemed necessary… for the sake of sustainability and security.
BiometricUpdate reports:
JPMorgan Chase’s new Manhattan headquarters will require biometric entry
“When employees begin reporting to JPMorgan Chase’s new Manhattan headquarters later this year, they will be required to submit their biometric data to enter the building. The policy, a first among major U.S. banks, makes biometric enrollment mandatory for staff assigned to the $3 billion, 60-story tower at 270 Park Avenue…
…Internal communications reviewed by the Financial Times and The Guardian confirm that JPMorgan employees assigned to the new building have been told they must enroll their fingerprints or undergo an eye scan to access the premises.
Earlier drafts of the plan described the system as voluntary, but reports say that language has quietly disappeared. A company spokesperson declined to clarify how data will be stored or how long it will be retained, citing security concerns. Some staff reportedly may retain the option of using a badge instead, though the criteria for exemption remain undisclosed.
The biometric access requirement is being rolled out alongside a Work at JPMC smartphone app that doubles as a digital ID badge and internal service platform, allowing staff to order meals, navigate the building, or register visitors.
According to its listing in the Google Play Store, the app currently claims “no data collected,” though that self-reported disclosure does not replace a formal employee privacy notice.”
The app is a microsm of the larger schemes already being used by international non-profits, the World Bank, and the United Nations to manage the food supply and other needs of refugees. Specifically, a refugee camp in Jordan. That’s where more than 40,000 refugees have their eye scanned to receive groceries.
Reuters reports:
In Jordan, refugees scan irises to collect aid. But is it ethical?
“At a grocery store checkout in the Jordanian refugee camp of Azraq, Sameera Sabbouh stares wide-eyed into a scanner to pay for her shopping – her iris scan unlocking payment from a digital aid account with the help of blockchain technology…
…Many of the nearly 40,000 Syrians who live in the camp recognise the convenience of the cashless, card-free payment method, which verifies recipients’ identity by referencing a U.N. database, but few said they like it.
“It’s really tiring. It doesn’t take the eye scan in the first try – it is two or three times before it takes the scan,” said Sabbouh, a mother-of-two from Aleppo who fled the city in 2015. “I would rather have my fingerprint scanned.”
Introduced in 2017, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Building Blocks initiative was one of the first to harness blockchain technology in humanitarian aid delivery, and it now reaches more than 1 million refugees in Jordan and Bangladesh.”
The blockchain technology they are referring to in the article is the same technology that is used for Central Bank Digital Currencies. The United Nations, World Bank, and other international organizations are monitoring and openly publishing their progress.
For example, The World Bank writes about its progress through the Identification for Development(ID4D) programme, which is a decentralized development initiative that can be aligned at a future date:
“Through its Identification for Development (ID4D) and Digitizing Government-to-Person Payments (G2Px) sister initiatives, the World Bank has supported over 60 countries to issue more inclusive, secure, and user-centered digital IDs to 550 million people and to build other digital public infrastructure, in particular data sharing and G2P payments for inclusion, resilience, and innovation.”
Compliance is being manufactured globally through sporting events like the World Cup where players and fans will come from all over the world to have their Biometrics scanned before entering the stadium. 900 security cameras will track fans inside, while AI surveillance cameras track the streets outside.
BiometricUpdate reports:
Facial recognition for Morocco’s Tangier stadium ahead of 2030 World Cup
“The Tangier stadium in Morocco which is earmarked to host some matches during the 2030 FIFA World Cup has been equipped with a cutting-edge facial recognition technology (FRT) system.
This is according to information from the Moroccan Football federation, as reported by Chamaly. Morocco will co-host that edition of football’s biggest event alongside Portugal and Spain, but some matches will be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the tournament’s 100th anniversary.
The FRT system is part of extensive reconstructions works which have taken place in the stadium in the past months. The system is a key part of the stadium’s security architecture, with about 900 surveillance cameras already installed in and outside the stadium…
…Beyond the stadiums, Morocco is also deploying AI-driven facial recognition systems across cities that will host the AFCON later this year, and then the World Cup in five years’ time.
Per reports, cities like Fez and Rabat have been implementing FRT projects as part of a safe city initiative ahead of these important football tournaments. Local IT firms Finatech Group and Alomra Group are handling the surveillance system deployment in Rabat estimated at over $10 million, We Are Tech Africa reports.
In the United States, which is a co-host of next year’s edition of the World Cup, an FRT system is being deployed in buses to be used by organizers during the tournament. That’s the case with Kansas City where a partnership will ensure each bus in the city fleet is equipped with at least five facial recognition cameras for safety and security purposes.
Biometric ticketing and stadium entry through face verification has also been in use in some World Cup qualifiers, with about 5,000 fans having used the system to obtain entry into Chile’s qualifier games.”
From corporate skyscrapers in Manhattan to refugee camps in Jordan, the same technological framework is quietly spreading—linking identity, access, and survival through biometric verification and digital IDs. What begins as a convenience or a security upgrade is, piece by piece, building an infrastructure of compliance, where movement, consumption, and participation can all be traced and conditioned. JPMorgan’s new headquarters may seem like an isolated test case, but is a merely a microsm of a global shift already embraced by governments and international organizations. As the line between your physical body and your digital identity dissolves, the question is no longer whether this system will expand, but whether we will notice when it does.
Disciplining our bodies is the last link between Digital IDs, and the implementation of CBDCs.
