Age verification is a brand-new, albeit obvious, use for Amazon’s palm-scanning payment system. The business revealed in a blog post on Monday that the Amazon One scanner is now much more than simply a different way to pay for things because it can now validate your age when used in locations like bars.
Details on You may purchase a drink using Amazon’s palm-scanning technology without pulling out your ID
Currently, Amazon uses the palm scanner at some Whole Foods locations as well as its Go stores to let shoppers pay for their items without having to dig out their credit cards or cash.
Amazon One with age verification is currently available at Colorado’s Coors Field before being made available at ‘other establishments in the coming months’. It is not really surprising to see Amazon develop its palm-scanning technology. This potential was raised by my colleague James Vincent in 2020, who noted that Amazon One is not only a payment system but also “an identity technology, and one that could give Amazon more reach into your life than ever before.”
Amazon now refers to its One technology as a “palm-based identity service” that may verify your age while buying alcoholic beverages or other items that require an ID.
You can scan your hand at locations that use the service after you register for age verification through Amazon One, which needs a wealth of personal information, including photos of your palm, government-issued ID, payment information, and a selfie. A “21+” message and your selfie will be visible to the barman or cashier so they can confirm your age and identity. After that, you can swipe your hand over the sensor once more to finish paying.
In order to match “multiple aspects of your palm,” such as lines, ridges, and veins, to the photographs you provide to the service and which it saves in its cloud, Amazon claims to employ cameras. This alone might provide privacy and security problems, but Amazon insists that the information collected by palm recognition is secure.
According to the business, it has “multi-layered security controls built into the hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure, to ensure that customer data stays encrypted and secure.” Amazon argues that even while it does not keep government-issued identification documents, this information is nevertheless sent to a “certified identity verification provider” that checks your ID, compares it to your selfie, and verifies your age before sending it to Amazon.
I don’t know about you, but I much prefer doing things the old-fashioned way, which involves reaching for my wallet, pulling out my ID, and giving it to the barman. This process just takes a few seconds and doesn’t give a technology company access to any more of my personal data.
