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Amazon's New App Lets You Scan Your Palm to Pay at Whole Foods, Panera Bread and More

IlluminatedSage said:
What's next, Amazon/Whole Foods will want to scan everyone's Iris for ID? know they can do facial recognition too

in no way would I opt into these schemes
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They built an Amazon Fresh store in my neighborhood a couple of years ago. They "scan everything" there. I'm not sure if people are buying into the whole 'just walk out' tech ... and it seems that every time I drive by, the parking lot is only 10-15% full ... as for me, it scares me how much technology/AI/whatever per sq ft is watching me. 🤣
 
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Mr. Heckles said:
No thanks. Amazon having my hand print, what could go wrong?
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To be fair, palm print isn't widely used as biometric-based identification. So even if the data gets compromised, it probably isn't all that valuable.

Amazon claims palm prints are 99.9999% accurate, or as accurate as Face ID, vs 99.998% for Touch ID.

Having used Amazon One at Whole Foods, the enrollment process is tedious. It isn't something you want to do when you are holding up the long line. Once enrolled, it takes a bit of effort to scan your hand. But it is still far easier than launching Whole Foods app to scan the QR code and then using Apple Pay to complete the transaction.

I mainly enrolled in Amazon One as I often like to go shopping without a phone (only Apple Watch) and Whole Foods app is not available on Apple Watch.

It's kinda dumb that Amazon One isn't integrated into Whole Foods app though.
 
PixelsMaster said:
Privacy concerns aside, this is cool.
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you're right ... it is cool. I'm sure a few years from now, our posts will be regarded as paranoid and looked at the same way as when other people in the past were concerned with emerging technologies or were 'slowly killing an industry.'

... this too will work fine, and eventually will be an everyday thing ... like it was with the introduction of credit/debit cards ...
 
iksretep said:
you're right ... it is cool. I'm sure a few years from now, our posts will be regarded as paranoid and looked at the same way as when other people in the past were concerned with emerging technologies or were 'slowly killing an industry.'

... this too will work fine, and eventually will be an everyday thing ... like it was with the introduction of credit/debit cards ...
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That’s usually how it goes too.
 
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I wouldn’t trust a ‘third party’ device scanning, storing and transmitting over the internet extremely detailed biometrics in any data form.

I can’t be intimately familiar with the scanner device in every store, if it’s been tampered with in hardware or software. There could be a third party device piggybacking the Amazon scanner to capture biometrics of its own, similar to card skimmers on cash machines, only worse because you can’t replace your biometrics. Not without surgery.

My own devices are only physically accessible to people close to me and maintained by myself. The biometrics are captured and stored by each individual device and not shared between them or other devices and services.
 
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cartwhisperer said:
We all know it's going to end up like this:
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OT: it's fascinating that anyone would even want to go to a bank 😵

I come from a country where one doesn't visit bank virtually at all (if you want to open an acocunt you fill out the form, then the DHL/Fedex/whatever courier brings the paperwork to sign and it's done. Card comes by mail... and now I moved to Spain and here banking-in-person seems to be so deeply rooted in how things operate... yuck. (and it's beyond inefficient xD)
 
nutmac said:
To be fair, palm print isn't widely used as biometric-based identification. So even if the data gets compromised, it probably isn't all that valuable.

Amazon claims palm prints are 99.9999% accurate, or as accurate as Face ID, vs 99.998% for Touch ID.

Having used Amazon One at Whole Foods, the enrollment process is tedious. It isn't something you want to do when you are holding up the long line. Once enrolled, it takes a bit of effort to scan your hand. But it is still far easier than launching Whole Foods app to scan the QR code and then using Apple Pay to complete the transaction.

I mainly enrolled in Amazon One as I often like to go shopping without a phone (only Apple Watch) and Whole Foods app is not available on Apple Watch.

It's kinda dumb that Amazon One isn't integrated into Whole Foods app though.
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Or you can just put in your phone number while your items are rung up. (If it works.)
 
They were already giving police access to Ring cameras, and now they’ll have your handprints/fingerprints linked to you, your address, and credit card information?
 
I'm trying to figure out why I have such a visceral, negative reaction to this. I prefer Apple's way, which is that your device might scan your biometrics to allow a payment, but the place you're paying at doesn't get access to those biometrics.

I more or less trust Apple not to pass those biometrics on to others, so they stay within the device.

You don't need to pass your biometrics on to a bunch of different places for convenience. My Apple Watch lets me pay for things and even works for swipe access at work. It's not difficult to imagine a future where more smart watches do this, where smart rings do this, and where even mechanical watches have a chip you can program for this sort of stuff.
 
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We’ve had this for years since I live in Seattle. We also have shopping carts that automatically charge you for whatever you put in the cart. All bs to make things more convenient for the business and not the customer
 
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ApplesAreSweet&Sour said:
Security concerns aside, is scanning your palm to pay that much faster and convenient than using your phone, smart watch or contactless payment card?

Palm scanning makes it possible to pay in an emergency when your devices get stolen or run out of power.

But is it worth it to have your biometric data stored on the internet?
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I don't think it's about convenience, it's about Amazon siphoning off payment processing dollars.
 
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ZebraDude said:
hmmm......(is it April fool yet??). 🙂
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People thought "Prime Air" was an April Fool's joke when Amazon announced it, and it turned out to be serious, drone delivery for certain purchases.


I actually used Amazon One at the Whole Foods store in Union Square, NYC, and it worked pretty well. The initial registration took some time, I had to scan my palm several times and in several different orientations, but once the scan was done, it worked pretty well. And I was able to link my Prime membership to it so I didn't have to enter my phone number or e-mail address

However, I do appreciate Apple Pay and the Apple Wallet, my cards are securely stored on my device, and I authenticate with my face, without any data being transmitted over the airwaves. So Apple Pay with Apple Wallet does feel more secure in that regard. However, in a way, it is cool to see different companies experimenting with different payment systems.

I think I will stick with Apple Pay for most of my transactions, though.
 
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