Llave MX and the Silent Trap of Digital ID in Mexico

Opinion

By Marc Castillo

THIS IS NONSENSE. There’s really no other word to describe big tech’s latest brainchild in Mexico: a nationwide scheme to capture and centralize people’s digital biometric data. Right now, information from millions of Mexicans is already being collected and fed into databases they never explicitly agreed to and shared with any company that feels like “COLLABORATING WITH MEXICO.”

What sounds like something administrative and modern is actually the foundation of something much bigger: a surveillance infrastructure that almost nobody has seriously discussed.

In a recent press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum, together with two technical schools, announced a collaboration with major U.S. and global tech companies. The main technology firms involved are Amiti, Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Axity, Google, IBM, Kyndryl, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, Ericsson, SAP, Softtek, and Tata.

The program promises “training” in Artificial Intelligence — but there’s a catch: to take part, you must hand over your DIGITAL ID. And that is not all. The program effectively allows these big tech companies to set up their infrastructure in Mexico while turning thousands of students into live test subjects, unpaid promoters of their products, and future brand ambassadors. 

The entro Público de Formación en Inteligencia Artificial or Public Training Center in Artificial Intelligence (Lab-MexIA) is an initiative of the Mexican government to provide free training for thousands of young people in AI, data analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and Java. It is developed by INFOTEC and TecNM, in partnership with AMITI and several major tech companies.

The main “leading companies” involved in providing the intrastate for AI in Mexico (as mentioned by the government and AMITI) are:

• Accenture

• AXITY

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Ericsson Telecom

• Google

• IBM de México

• Kyndryl

• Meta

• Microsoft México

• Oracle de México

• Salesforce

• SAP México

• Softtek

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Fuente: Conferencia de Prensa: Centro Público de Formación en Inteligencia Artificial. Ciudad de México / 6 de noviembre de 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRtyNFwVQjk&t=2113s

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, we can already see where this is heading. In the United States, the data collected by your DIGITAL IDENTIFICATION can already end up in other countries’ hands. Not long ago, an American YouTuber described how he flew to France, went out and came back in, and no one asked him for a passport or any physical ID. Why? Because his digital ID already contained BIOMETRIC data of his face, and the U.S. had shared that with France. No line, no stamps, no passport. Everything “handled” by systems talking to each other behind the counter.

It sounds convenient. But that’s where the problem is: comfort in exchange for total control.

There are already people who have been stopped at airports not because of what they did, but because of what they “appear” to be in a database. Someone on a blacklist follows someone on social media, the algorithm connects the dots, and suddenly a random traveler is denied entry even though they have no idea who that follower is. What used to be a human suspicion is now an automated inference. And when a machine makes a mistake, there’s no one you can really argue with.

In Mexico, all of this is being built almost in silence. The so-called DIGITAL ID here is sold under the name **Llave MX**. It was imposed in 2022 and almost no one noticed. Now it’s coming “full force,” integrated into more and more procedures.

What’s the problem? That it **centralizes** everything:

* Your INE (voter ID)
* Your birth certificate
* Your mobile phone account
* Your medical consultations
* The Ministry of Education (SEP) asks for it for school procedures
* The tax authority (SAT) is starting to integrate it
* IMSS uses it for medical appointments
* Universities request it
* Your degree and professional license already require it

In other words: your identity, your health, your education, your income, your assets, and your daily life all begin to converge in a single point of control. A single “profile” that will keep being fed year after year.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? That this is not just a tech upgrade; it’s a shift in power.

This model is being pushed in several countries through pressure and coercion, driven by central banks and international organizations (BIS, IMF, World Bank, G20, etc.). At the same time, the famous **central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)** are being designed. Digital ID + digital money + everything linked to the same record: do we really think that has no political and social consequences?

Countries like Mexico buckle under pressure with the argument that “we can’t fall behind” and that “this is modernity.” And along the way, we quietly accept that any current or future government, and any “authorized” company, can profile and condition the lives of its citizens.

Meanwhile, we’re already seeing how this data logic is applied elsewhere. In the United States:

* The systems in your electric car or any car with a digital screen record where you are, how many miles or kilometers you travel, how FAST YOU BRAKE.
* Supposedly, this data helps evaluate how safe you are as a driver, but it also reveals how much gas you use, which routes you take, what times of day you move around.

The problem is simple:

a) No one ever explicitly gave them permission to collect that much information.
c) And there are already real financial consequences: insurance companies raising premiums because the algorithm “decided” you’re a risky driver.

One man saw his monthly car insurance bill nearly double. When he asked why, the company explained that, according to his vehicle’s data, he was braking very hard in front of his house, and that “indicated” he was almost crashing frequently. Conclusion: high risk. Result: financial penalty.

The same logic applies to health insurance. A woman used her smartwatch to track her steps and workouts. That data ended up with her health insurer. When she needed a breathing device, her claim was denied: according to the activity records, she “wasn’t exercising enough.” A gadget that started out as a “wellness tool” ended up being used as a weapon to deny a basic medical need.

The logic is the same: the data you generate in your daily life become criteria for evaluation, punishment, or reward. The difference with digital identification is that it’s no longer about one device or another; it’s about your whole person.

And it doesn’t stay on the screen. It reaches your home.

My own family is living it. In our neighborhood, they installed **“smart thermostats”** to “save energy and help fight climate change.” It sounds great in the brochure. In practice, it means that some company or authority, remotely, can decide when your heating goes on or off. And they’ve done it: they’ve cut off our heat on nights with below-freezing temperatures, forcing us to sleep in hotels.

HOW DOES THAT HELP CLIMATE CHANGE? It’s the perfect excuse: in the name of the planet, someone else decides how much cold you’re allowed to endure.

All of this connects back to DIGITAL ID. Because it’s not just another number; it’s the glue that binds together your face, your medical history, your car, your purchases, your social networks, your “smart” devices, and soon, your access to digital money.

I could write pages and pages about how this identification system and the infrastructure around it are building a dystopian world where everything you do, eat, think, everyone you talk to, and every political opinion you hold can be tracked, analyzed, and eventually used against you.

And of course, the banks and companies behind this architecture spend a fortune-telling us that all of this is just “conspiracy theories” or “misinformation.” They take advantage of the general lack of understanding about the **Internet of Things**, digital money, and blockchain to sell these technologies as inevitable, neutral, and modern.

In the meantime, the so-called “social credit” is being constructed little by little:
we’re being herded like goats into a digital pen, Trojan horses wrapped in the language of innovation and security. In the name of convenience and efficiency, we hand over control of our lives to opaque systems that answer to whoever pays the most.

There’s another piece almost nobody talks about: the physical infrastructure.

I’ve spent a year using ChatGPT, and I’ve seen the transition from a tool that felt like it was “helping you with your questions” to a system that can log, organize, and potentially profile everything you’ve written, thought about, or asked. Behind that “magic” are high-powered GPUs, chips made by companies like NVIDIA, feeding massive data centers.

The more **data centers** are built in the United States, Mexico, and around the world, the more energy and water are consumed to sustain this model. There are already regions where data center electricity use rivals that of entire countries, and in many places they compete for the very same aquifers people need to drink and grow food. In the coming years, these infrastructures will be directly competing with human beings for basic resources.

Digital ID, digital money, biometrics, connected cars, smartwatches, “green” thermostats, artificial intelligence: separate pieces that together form a control architecture.

This is not about rejecting all technology or going off to live in a cave. It’s about something much more basic: **who has power over our data, our decisions, and our bodies?**

Before Llave MX and its equivalents become mandatory for every aspect of life, we need a real public debate:

* Clear limits on the use of biometric data.
* Explicit bans on selling personal profiles to third parties.
* Independent audits for algorithms that grant or deny essential services.
* Effective mechanisms to say NO and still keep our basic rights.

If we don’t open that discussion now, by the time we try to react, it’ll be too late. It won’t just be “a complicated procedure.” The entire system will already assume that, by design, you’re not a citizen — you’re a **risk** to be managed.

 

This op-ed reflects the personal opinions of the author alone. It does not represent the views of OKM News, its editors, or its staff. OKM News assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of any statements or for any consequences arising from the publication of this opinion.