Amazon One

2023: Recognizing buyer's age by palm to sell alcohol

An updated biometric Amazon One identity recognition technology was launched in May 2023. She can now identify a person's age by flapping her palm to sell him alcohol in supermarkets and bars. The system is also used in automated stores. Amazon Go

Customers registered with Amazon One must confirm their age by uploading a photo of the front and back of their ID, such as their driver's license, and taking selfies on the service's website. Amazon claims that the company does not store this data.

Amazon One can now identify a person's age by flapping their palm to sell them alcohol in supermarkets and bars

When a registered customer points their palm at an Amazon One device, the cashier will see a "21 +" message on the screen along with a photo of the customer. An employee of a store or bar can visually match a photo with a customer in front of him and sell the product if he is convinced that the user is 21 years old. After that, the client takes another swing of the palm over the device to confirm payment.

The service analyzes the unique features of the palm, such as lines, grooves and veins, and stores them in the cloud. Amazon says the technology is safe and secure because it uses only the palm, not the face or fingerprints. It is also noted that the user has the right to delete data from the service at any time.

According to The Verge, in many countries, in order to purchase a number of products, people need to prove that they have reached a certain age, or provide an identity card. Thanks to the updated Amazon One technology, the process of confirming age is greatly simplified - after pre-registration, the user can only use his palm, the portal notes.^[1]

2021: Payment to users of $10 for handover of fingerprints in stores without cashiers

In early August 2021, information appeared that Amazon pays $10 to all users who register their palm print in stores without an Amazon One cash register and connect it to their account. This reward can be used to make purchases.

Amazon is developing Amazon One biometric fingerprint scanners. The technology was required to allow customers to pay for their items in some stores by putting their palm on one of these Amazon One scanners. By February 2021, the company had extended palm scanners in addition to grocery and to its other stores throughout Seattle. Amazon has rolled out biometric scanning technology to its stores across the U.S., including New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Texas.

Amazon pays consumers $10 to hand over fingerprints in cashier-free stores

The dystopian future from science fiction has come now. It's terrible that Amazon is asking people to sell their bodies, but it's even worse that people are doing it at such a low cost. Biometric data is one of the only ways companies and governments can keep track of us at all times. You can change your name, you can change your Social Security number, but you can't change your palm print, "Albert Fox Kahn, executive director of the New York Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said in an email to TechCrunch.

Amazon claims that palm scanning equipment captures the smallest characteristics of your palm, both surface details such as lines, stripes and ridges, and human subcutaneous features in particular, such as vein pattern. The collected data is stored in the service cloud and is used to confirm your identity when you are in one of the company's stores.

The company also claims that palm data is held indefinitely unless you choose to delete it after there are no transactions pending behind you or if you don't use the feature for two years.

Although the idea of ​ ​ contactless scanning of a palm print to pay for goods during the COVID-19 pandemic may seem original, it should be treated with caution and skepticism, given Amazon's past efforts to develop biometric technologies. The controversial facial recognition technology that Amazon has historically sold to police and law enforcement has been the subject of lawsuits alleging the company violated state laws prohibiting the use of personal biometric data without authorization.^[2]

2020: System Launch

On September 29, 2020, Amazon introduced a palm scanner to pay for purchases in stores without cashiers. A similar decision was introduced by Sberbank (Ladoshki) back in 2015.

The new technology from Amazon is called Amazon One. It allows contactless recognition of the customer's palm from a distance, matching data with an Amazon Prime account and automatically debiting funds from a bank card already linked to the account.

Like "Ladoshka" of Sberbank. Amazon introduced a palm scanner to pay for purchases in stores without cashiers

Palm recognition is considered more confidential than some biometric alternatives. You can't determine a person's identity by looking at an image of their palm, "says Amazon vice president of physical retail Dilip Kumar. - Payment requires someone to intentionally make a gesture by holding their palm over the device.

The company notes that people do not have the same palms, so Amazon technologies read the individual features of each and determine the person by them. This method can be used, among other things, at passageways, for example, to stadiums or offices, to which people with tickets or a pass are allowed to access, Amazon notes.

Amazon admits it will collect data on where Amazon One customers shop "in the palm of their hand," but will not know exactly what they are buying or how much they are spending. Information about operations performed in this way is also promised not to be used to show ads.

By the end of September 2020, the Amazon One system is available in two Amazon stores without cashiers in Seattle (state Washington,). USA In the future, when visiting stores, the buyer will not need to take bank cards with him. Amazon plans to roll out the technology to the rest of its outlets "in the coming months" and then partner with third-party sellers.^[3]

Back in 2016, Sberbank launched the Ladoshka biometric system, which allows you to pay for meals in educational institutions by palm of your hand, as well as control the entrance and exit of the child. To pay, the system identifies the child by an individual vein pattern, the amount is automatically debited from the parent's account. Read more here.

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