This is about control.
If you read carefully, you will see workers and government employees are being forced into bio-metric identification. fail to comply and face the consequences.
The other reason for adoption in places like Dubai is a combination of Muslim's covering their entire heads, so only the eyes are visible to scan and the belief that taking photos is somehow "Stealing a person's soul".
So this 21st Century technology is gaining acceptance by people whom are literally stuck in the 14th Century.
Irony is so Ironic.