Amazon One's Palm-Scanning Payments Are Coming To Whole Foods (theverge.com) 34
Amazon One is now testing its palm-scanning payment technology in Whole Foods, starting with a single store in Amazon's home city of Seattle. The Verge reports: The company has been using Amazon One payment technology in its Amazon-branded stores in the Seattle area (including Amazon Go and Amazon Books), but the Whole Foods rollout will make the most substantial expansion of the technology yet. The company says that thousands of customers have already signed up with Amazon One. According to an Amazon FAQ, the palm-scanning technology analyzes "the minute characteristics of your palm -- both surface-area details like lines and ridges as well as subcutaneous features such as vein patterns" in order to identify a customer, allowing them to use the biometric scan as an alternative (and, theoretically, faster) method of checking out than fumbling around with a credit card or cash.
Customers will be able to register their palms at kiosks in the supported Whole Foods stores, allowing them to associate a physical credit card to that palm scan. And of course, Amazon One users will be able to link their Prime accounts to their scans to get the subscription service's discounts when shopping. Amazon One will debut at the Madison Broadway Whole Foods in Seattle as an additional payment option for customers, with plans to expand it to seven other Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area over the next few months. Amazon hasn't announced plans to further build out the palm-scanning payment system outside of the Seattle area.
Customers will be able to register their palms at kiosks in the supported Whole Foods stores, allowing them to associate a physical credit card to that palm scan. And of course, Amazon One users will be able to link their Prime accounts to their scans to get the subscription service's discounts when shopping. Amazon One will debut at the Madison Broadway Whole Foods in Seattle as an additional payment option for customers, with plans to expand it to seven other Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area over the next few months. Amazon hasn't announced plans to further build out the palm-scanning payment system outside of the Seattle area.
Fuck That Noise (Score:1, Troll)
cut off Bezos hand and tip big at the store (Score:4, Interesting)
cut off Bezos hand and tip big at the store the low paid staff may just look the other way.
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If you want to avoid stores that don't pay staff well try Walmart, Target and Kroger stores, not Amazon subsidiaries.
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Yeah, left out "starting with" between "try" and Walmart.
If you want to avoid stores that don't pay staff well try starting with Walmart, Target and Kroger stores, not Amazon subsidiaries.
Fixed that for me.
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Also just boycott Whole Foods. There is nothing there that you can't get elsewhere, and likely for cheaper. Boycott Amazon, too. Don't give Bezos your money.
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Actually there's quite a bit of stuff they have that you can't get anywhere else, like good lamb at a decent price, heirloom chicken, never-frozen salmon, and an outstanding cheese assortment that's not priced like the specialty stores. Their prices for vegetables are not outrageous, certainly better than Trader Joe's, and the quality is better than you'll find at even QFC. We'll never fill a shopping cart there, but for some things they're worth a visit. We like to eat good food, which requires good ing
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What about AWS? Boycott all sites that use that?
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Your hands receive negative reviews on the Amazon website.
What If You Lose You Hand? (Score:3)
Then What?
Does your other hand work as a backup?
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ADA lawsuit. You'll own amazon.
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Hmm. Has saw handy. Pun intended.
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As much as they want this, there will have to be a backup where people can pay without using their hands lest Amazon run afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 [wikipedia.org] which would not work out for them.
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Actually, yes. You can enroll both hands, the system wouldn't likely care which one you used.
I've worked in physical security for the last decade and a half, and always hated hand readers. They were finicky, went out of calibration if you looked wrong at them, and any injury to your hand, or even if they swelled from heat or shrank from cold, the read would fail.
I work at Amazon now, and was part of the test group for these things. I was shocked at how well they worked and talked to the staff that was ru
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What if you lose both hands? :P
Really? (Score:2)
If I lose my hand, "how am I going to use a 'shortcut' when checking out" is going to be pretty low on my list of worries.
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666 (Score:2)
Can we get something that scans the chip in our forehead?
I Don't Fumble Around (Score:2)
I don't 'fumble around' with a debit card or cash. I am in control when I use money. And when I use cash, it's nobodies business who I am. That is a refreshing experience, too.
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Till terrorists start using physical money as a distribution vector for bioweapons, and nations ban physical money in response.
Re: I Don't Fumble Around (Score:1)
If cash money was going to be a significant disease vector it already would have. Your fud won't play, sorry.
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Who does? (Score:2)
Using a card is much faster than putting my hand somewhere. Are there people out there who have a lot of trouble removing a card, inserting it, and leaving?
Obviously (Score:2)
This is just a pretext for compiling a wankers registry. And God only knows how this knowledge of self-abuse will be abused.
Does it work for hairy palms? (Score:5, Funny)
Just wondering. For a friend.
All your biometrics R US (Score:4, Interesting)
med students in Sweden (Score:1)
the Mark of the Beast (Score:1)
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Palms? Is that a good idea? (Score:2)
Palms get greased very often, those readers can't be that hygienic.
Human detail harvesting (Score:2)
Also supply health insurance details, mother's maiden name, favorite pet's name, driving license etc,.
Apart from the fact that I cannot afford to shop at WholeFoods, I think paying in cash whenever possible is a good idea.
I'm so tired of being tracked.