Faithwire
  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • News
  • Politics
  • Coronavirus Updates
  • Faith
  • Opinion
  • Christmas
  • Set Free Course

Amazon Rolling Out Palm Scanning, Allowing People to Pay By Waving Their Hand

AP Photo/Richard Drew
AP Photo/Richard Drew
Share Tweet
By Tré Goins-Phillips
Editor

April 21, 2021

Amazon is rolling out new technology allowing customers at some Whole Food stores to pay for their groceries by waving their palms across a scanner.

The pay-by-palm service will launch first at a Whole Foods location in Seattle, near the company’s headquarters, Amazon announced Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Amazon plans to roll out the technology, known as Amazon One, in eight stores in the Seattle area in the coming months. The service will allow customers to hold their hands above a scanner that will read their unique palm print and charge the credit or debit card linked to their hand.

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to improve the shopping experience for our customers,” Whole Foods Chief Technology Officer Arun Rajan told CNN, which noted the technology will allow people a contact-free payment option — an attractive offering to some in the COVID era.

The service has already been tried at some of Amazon’s branded stores in Seattle.

In 2016, Amazon made headlines when it opened a store that doesn’t have any checkout lines. Patrons instead download the Amazon Go app, grab whatever items they want as the app uses cameras and artificial intelligence to track the things they pick up, and then they just walk out of the store. The app charges the linked account for the purchased products.

While Amazon One will, at this point, just be an additional payment option at the checkout counter — where there is one — the Washington-based company said the new tech could be used in office buildings, and venues and stadiums, and by other retailers.

Some privacy experts, though, have raised concerns about how this kind of technology could be hacked or, worse, abused.

It should go without saying but DO NOT give Amazon a copy of your "palm signature." The convenience isn't worth the potential privacy nightmare.https://t.co/dt7j8T9Wuf

— Mashable (@mashable) September 30, 2020

In September 2020, Mashable reporter Jack Morse said people “should absolutely not participate” in Amazon One.

Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit group advocating for people’s rights in the digital age, said the development is reason for concern.

“Handing your sensitive biometric information to private corporations is a terrible idea,” she said, “especially since there are almost no laws in place that hold them accountable for keeping that information safe, or prevent them from abusing it, or selling it to others.”

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

Morse added, “The question [Amazon] fails to sufficiently answer … is why anyone should trust a company like Amazon — which, it’s worth noting, is no stranger to privacy scandals — with their biometric data.”

For its part, Amazon has vowed it keeps palm images in a secure part of its cloud and gives users the freedom to ask for their information to be deleted from the service at any time.

Latest

  • News

    NASA Says ‘Something Weird’ Is Going on in the Universe

  • Faith

    ‘Follow Me’: Iranian Muslim Sees Jesus in a Vision, Abandons Islam for Christianity

  • culture

    ‘I Was Going to Do Anything…to Protect These Kids’: Gentle, Petite Teacher Hailed Hero After Tackling School Intruder

  • Life

    ‘There’s a Kid Inside!’: Bodycam Shows Cops Smashing Windows, Saving Little Boy From Home ‘Fully Engulfed in Flames’

  • culture

    ‘Could Be Disastrous’: Transsexual Activist Pushes Back on Own Movement, Warns of Child Indoctrination and Lies


Navigation

  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Staff
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Sign up to get our newsletter your inbox every day.

Newsletter Signup

Do you want to read
more articles like this?