I don't know but it seems to be a surprisingly common problem, especially for politicians.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Amazon's New App Lets You Scan Your Palm to Pay at Whole Foods, Panera Bread and More
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't know but it seems to be a surprisingly common problem, especially for politicians.
How could this ever be faster than ApplePay? And what if you have multiple cards? Do you have to make gang signs to pick them?
All of the dystopian dread aside….
What “problem” is this trying to solve that is potentially profitable enough to bring this to consumers?
What is the “why” of the pitch? Who asked for anything like this in a world of Apple Pay’s, Venmo’s, PayPal’s, etc?
What “problem” is this trying to solve that is potentially profitable enough to bring this to consumers?
What is the “why” of the pitch? Who asked for anything like this in a world of Apple Pay’s, Venmo’s, PayPal’s, etc?
Not only NO, but Hell No!
Amazon today launched the Amazon One app, which is designed to allow customers to scan their palms to make device-free purchases at Whole Foods, Panera Bread, and 150 third-party locations in stadiums, airports, fitness centers, and convenience stores.
Prior to the launch of the app, signing up for Amazon One had to be done in a physical location with an Amazon One device. The app lets customers create a profile, take a photo of their palm, and add a payment method. Finishing sign-up will still require an initial interaction with an Amazon One machine.
Amazon One can be used for payment, entry to venues, age verification, and loyalty rewards. The service uses generative AI to match a camera phone photo of a person's palm to near-infrared imagery from an Amazon One scanner.
The AI system is able to pair palm and vein imagery to create a unique, numerical vector representation that is used for identity matching. Amazon says that it is 99.99 percent accurate.
Palm images taken with the app are encrypted and sent to a secure Amazon One domain in the AWS cloud. Amazon says the service is convenient for consumers and businesses, and that it sees many repeat users at Whole Foods. Amazon One can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Article Link: Amazon's New App Lets You Scan Your Palm to Pay at Whole Foods, Panera Bread and More
Has anyone made such a claim? Clearly this is just for convenience and nothing more.
So this means for every 10,000 customers, there’s going to be a duplicate match. People are going to be randomly scanning their palms to try to trick the system.
Considering that COVID is still around and has hospitalized and killed many vulnerable people (elderly, immunocompromized, people with preexisting conditions, etc.) in one of its waves in just the past couple of months alone, it's probably not a good idea for many people to be putting the entire surface area of their hand on the same glass surface where many others have done the same. That also applies to the annual flu season.
Last edited:
I'm waiting for Facepalm ID — best of both worlds.
I've had the same experience. Much more convenient, especially now that they integrated your preferred payment.
I actually did it in the first place because scanning the Whole Foods app was such a terrible experience. That little dedicated scanner was terrible with no positive feedback on whether it was successful or not. And then you had to switch to Apple Pay at the end.
It took them years and it's still not as simple as Target where you scan the app once at the start and it handles all the discounts and payment.
More than you think. Millions own Amazon cctv cameras and echo devices. The risk is those recorded videos and voice prints in the cloud could on day leak online and be used by hackers to impersonate anyone using AI and do considerable financial and psychological harm. Some family members own one or tow of these devices whenever I bring up the privacy subject is like I hit a wall, they just don’t wanna know.
Not sure there's any issue there. If you're in the store and picking items, you're already touching things others have touched. And in any case, you don't touch it, you just hover your hand over it.
oh you’re completely right to ask this. i actually set it up the old way, by going to a whole foods location, and it’s clunky as hell. they really should’ve sent a video tutorial because it’s as unintuitive as it gets, and i’ve been a techie since i was a teenager.
the initial setup is laughable. the instructions didn’t even say where in the store i should go to complete enrollment, and when i asked, the store employees had no idea what i was talking about, but when they saw the QR code in my phone, they directed me to a corner of the store that turned out to be for amazon returns. the employee there also had no idea what i was asking. i finally gave up and googled it, and learned that you do it at the register, so i went to a line to pay for some food and to finish enrolling. the cashier kept saying “that’s to pay with your palm” and i repeated “right, i’m trying to set that up” and they didn’t help me with the process at all, or knew whether i was supposed to press my palm against the reader or just hover it. i finally got it to accept both palms and since the instructions said to bring your credit card the first time you enroll your palm, i tapped it, and ended up paying with the ****ing credit card instead of my palm. at least i was enrolled. i guess this app would save you this pain in the ass step.
when i went back a couple months later, i remembered to pay with my palm, and it took me a good three tries to figure out how.
We regret to inform you that our database was compromised, and a third party now has possession of your palm print. We are sending you these gloves at no cost to you. Please wear them for the next seven years.
I was going to comment "oh great, more generative AI nonsense"... but then I watched their explanation video. Very cool actually! Impressive and useful twist on this technology!
I think a lot of people will find this to be quite a handy feature.
There's no proof this data is "on the internet". It could be only accessible over a secure virtual private network (VPN). Servers can be accessible over the internet, but not "online" publicly. That is very common with secure networks.
The hand scanner is infrared, not a camera. It will know the difference between a real hand and a photo simply based on that.
Regarding the "cloud" and "internet connection" concerns, big retailers often have VPNs between retail systems and secure back-end systems. Sure, data still goes "over" the internet, but it's not available "on" the internet. It's not like they are subscribing to the same type of internet service you subscribe to from home. Very different level of service.
Biometrics in general are a clear and present danger both to the individual and to society at large. Arguably not so much in terms of Face ID or Touch ID, but people handing over their biometrics to banks and megacorps are setting themselves up for a fall. Passwords can be changed. Faces, eyes and hands, not so much.