Amazon Rolls Out Palm Payments Despite Concern
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SEATTLE, USA (Worthy News) – U.S. tech giant Amazon says it is taking cashless payments to a new level by rolling out palm-scanning payment technology across the United States, adding to concerns among privacy advocates.
Known as Amazon One, the system will come to all 500+ Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market stores nationwide by year-end.
The biometric payment system requires customers to hover a palm above the reader device.
It then identifies the individual’s palm signature associated with the customer’s payment card on file to charge for purchases.
Since the technology’s launch in 2020, Amazon One’s service was already established at more than 400 locations across the U.S.
Additionally, Amazon said it would also be able to verify customers’ ages, allowing customers to use the device to purchase adult beverages — like beer at a sports event, with their palms.
However, Amazon One has faced criticism, with some complaining that the information is stored in the online “cloud” and could be less secure.
THEATER CONCERNED
Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater reportedly stopped using the system after advocates and artists expressed concerns about data collection and surveillance.
In a statement, Amazon tried to play down those concerns saying, “Amazon One will never share palm data with third parties, under any circumstance.”
It claimed it would ignore government demands “unless we’re required to comply with a legally valid and binding order.”
Additionally, Amazon One “is not interoperable with data provided by other sources. This is because Amazon One uses a proprietary combination of palm and vein imagery to recognize customers, making it unusable to third parties and unmatchable with data from other sources,” the company stressed.
“Further, Amazon One palm data is not used by Amazon for marketing purposes, and it will not be bought by or sold to other companies for advertising, marketing, or any other reason.”
The company said that “when you use Amazon One at third-party locations, Amazon doesn’t track what you do or buy after entering the location. That data is not associated with your biometric identity, and we built Amazon One that way intentionally.”
However, critics fear it will be a matter of time before people will be tracked through the palm of their hand at a time when face recognition and other body-linked technologies are being used for payments and identification.
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