Amazon unveils a Way to Pay in Stores With Just Your Hand

Well, that’s pretty cool. Amazon wants to speed up shopping trips by allowing users to pay with the palm of their hands. On Tuesday, the company launched Amazon One, a new biometric technology that enables shoppers to enter and pay for items in stores by placing their palms over a scanning device.

In order for it to work, users must first connect their palm to the credit card they have stored. After that, users will be able to pay with their hands. To begin with, Amazon One will be an option to enter two of its dozens of cashier-less Amazon Go stores, located near its Seattle headquarters. Over time, Amazon plans to introduce technology to more of its physical stores in the coming months.

Amazon also hopes to sell palm scanning technology to other companies, such as retailers, stadiums, and office buildings. The company said it’s already in “active discussions with several potential customers.”

It’s the Amazon model that has been experimented with before. In March, Amazon announced that it would begin selling technology to its cashier-less stores, called “Just Walk Out,” which would allow shoppers to enter the store by scanning an app and then exit without waiting in line. Cameras and sensors track what items customers choose and charge when they leave.

Shoppers may also be wary of handing biometric data over to one of the country’s largest retailers. Amazon addressed privacy concerns in the launch of Amazon One, saying that the technology was designed to be “highly secure.” Palm images are not stored on the Amazon One device and are instead encrypted and stored in a secure area that was “custom-built in the cloud.” Amazon One users will also be able to request the deletion of their Biometric data after use, via a device or online.

Amazon stated that it chose palm scanning technology over other biometric alternatives such as eye scanning or facial recognition because it is “considered more private”.

“You can’t recognize a human by looking at the picture of his hand,” Amazon said.

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