Amazon imagines a world where you pay with your hand. Privacy experts aren’t so sure.
Summary
Amazon’s plan is to start selling it as a service to other companies, like retail stores, office buildings that use ID badges to get in and out, or stadiums that require tickets for events. The palm-scanning experiment is the latest sign that Amazon isn’t shying away from products that push the boundaries of what customers are willing to accept, if it can make their lives easier or spark a little joy. They’re used by law enforcement to identify people, but have more recently been turned into a consumer tech offering as a way to access phones, skip the security line at an airport or board a plane. It has used a spaghetti-against-the-wall approach with its products to see what sticks (not its effort to launch the Fire phone) and what traditional privacy precautions buyers are willing to give up for cool devices (a lot, it turns out). Amazon’s Catallozzi says the scans are used to map out identifying features on the palm — the pattern of veins under the skin, the lines and ridges on the surface — and create a unique “signature” for the user.