Amazon Introduces Palm-Based Payments to Whole Foods Market Stores
Paying with your palm at the grocery store will soon be a hassle-free experience. Amazon has announced that it will introduce its One palm recognition technology to all Whole Foods Market stores across the US by the end of this year. Similar to the previous system, customers can simply hover their palm over a reader to complete their payment or take advantage of their Prime benefits. If you have already registered online, there will be no need to retrieve your phone or wallet.
Amazon One is already available in more than 200 stores in states like California, New York and Texas. The expansion brings it to more than 500 stores. The technology is also available in some third-party locations. You can buy beer at the Colorado Rockies stadium or have breakfast at Panera.
The palm recognition system is billed as an advantage over tap-to-pay and other contactless systems that still require some kind of physical product, including Amazon’s computer vision-based Just Walk Out technology. It is also potentially beneficial for businesses. It ensures alcohol purchasers are of legal age, and the deeper nature of the scans (which look at both the palm and veins) create a distinctive vector “signature” that allegedly cannot be duplicated.
However, the approach has its critics. Activists have called on music venues and other venues to abandon Amazon One’s privacy and human rights. While Amazon touts secure cloud storage for palm writing and anti-tamper protections, opponents worry that governments could use the data to track protesters and marginalized people. Opponents also worry that hackers can still take and misuse data.
The company already has legal problems because of its practices. The proposed class action alleges that Amazon violated New York law by failing to clearly inform shoppers of the Go store that it collects biometric information, including palm prints. Amazon claims One users expressly consent to data collection, but it’s not clear that’s enough to comply with the law.
