More Americans shopping in Whole Foods stores will soon be able to pay for their items with just a wave of their hand under Amazon’s One Palm recognition system.
The Jeff Bezos-owned company announced on July 20 that it has teamed up with the grocery store chain in the United States on the new system and will allow customers at 500 Whole Foods Market locations across the country to pay for products using only their hand by the end of this year.
Customers will also be able to use the palm-recognition service for identification, loyalty membership, and entry to the stores, Amazon said.
“This means Whole Foods Market customers who choose to use Amazon One will no longer need their wallet or even a phone to pay—they can simply hover their palm over an Amazon One device,” the company said. “For Prime members who link their Amazon One profile with their Amazon account, savings will automatically be applied. It’s that simple.”
The payment system was first announced in October 2020 and has already been used more than three million times, according to Amazon.
Customers at 200 Whole Foods across the United States, including in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, are already able to use the card and cashless payment system, but more will be able to do so within the coming months.
Amazon’s payment system uses multiple characteristics of a palm to identify each person who uses the service. Customers using the system simply place their palm over the Amazon One device in stores throughout the country and a camera will analyze the palm’s unique features and vein patterns to identify the user.
Palm Recognition System Is ‘Safe, Secure’
Amazon claims the system helps businesses speed up their identification and payment processes, and is safe and secure, using several enhanced security capabilities to protect sensitive customer data.The company also states it will never share palm data with third parties, “under any circumstance,” including in the case of government demand unless it is “required to comply with a legally valid and binding order.”
However, the program has raised an array of security concerns.
In 2021, senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy urging the company to hand over information about its data-collection practices involving biometrics, citing concerns that the data could used to further cement Amazon’s competitive power and “suppress competition across various markets.”
“Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and its respect for user privacy, including about how Amazon may use the data for advertising and tracking purposes,” the senators wrote.
“Amazon One users may experience harm if their data is not kept secure,” they continued. “In contrast with biometric systems like Apple’s Face ID and Touch ID or Samsung Pass, which store biometric information on a user’s device, Amazon One reportedly uploads biometric information to the cloud, raising unique security risks ... Data security is particularly important when it comes to immutable customer data, like palm prints,” they said.
The senators asked Amazon to provide information detailing how many third-party customers Amazon has sold or licensed Amazon One to, what privacy protections are in place for those third parties and their customers, how the data are collected, and whether or not the data would be used for personalized advertisements, among other things.
In addition, they questioned the company over whether or not Amazon One user data, including the Amazon One ID, is ever paired with biometric data from facial recognition systems.
Amazon Sued Over Biometric Data Collection
Earlier this year, Amazon was also sued by a customer in New York City who accused an Amazon Go store of having violated the city’s Biometric Identifier Information Law by failing to notify all customers who entered the store that cameras were collecting and storing their biometric data.Amazon has denied using facial-recognition technology in any of its stores, telling Gizmodo at the time that claims made otherwise were categorically “false.”
“Only shoppers who choose to enroll in Amazon One and choose to be identified by hovering their palm over the Amazon One device have their palm-biometric data securely collected, and these individuals are provided the appropriate privacy disclosures during the enrollment process,” a spokesperson said. “The customer is always in control of when they choose to be identified using their palm.”
The latest announcement from Amazon also comes after the company agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $30.8 million to settle claims that it allowed employees and third-party contractors of its Ring video camera doorbell unit to surveil customers in their homes and illegally retained children’s voice recordings through its Alexa app.
Despite the security concerns, a number of businesses in the United States have already adopted Amazon’s One Palm recognition system.
In March, for example, Panera Bread restaurants announced it had launched Amazon One’s loyalty linking capability at select restaurants, allowing customers to use their palms to record a signature for purchases. Customers can also pay for their purchases at select Panera restaurants using the system.
In May, baseball stadium Coors Field began offering customers the service as an identification and payment option, meaning customers ages 21 and over could buy purchase alcoholic beverages by simply scanning their palms without needing a government-issued ID.
“We are always looking for new ways to delight our customers and improve the shopping experience,” said Leandro Balbinot, chief technology officer at Whole Foods Market, in Thursday’s announcement.
“Since we’ve introduced Amazon One at Whole Foods Market stores over the past two years, we’ve seen that customers love the convenience it provides, and we’re excited to bring Amazon One to all of our customers across the U.S.,” Mr. Balbinot continued.
