Citigroup to Issue Official Identity Cards to Pentagon Contractors

The military-industrial-banking complex makes a scary move.

Citigroup Inc. is expanding into a little-known but fast-growing field known as identity proofing—the task of proving people are who they say they are, reports WSJ.

The third-biggest U.S. bank by assets later this month will begin issuing digital-identity badges to the employees of Defense Department contractors, ranging from makers of high-tech engineering parts to the janitors who clean the bathrooms. Citigroup is the only financial institution that has clearance to sell the identity cards and grab a piece of a market whose annual sales could reach into the billions of dollars.

But the badge business is just the beginning. Citigroup's hope is that the contractors will eventually use the plastic on which the badges are issued for more than just identity verification.

Will we all eventually end up being tracked by Citigroup? First they tracked pentagon contractors, then the rest of us?