时间:2025-04-03 14:32:40 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
After initially saying it had "no plans" for the palm-reading payment tech in Whole Foods stores, Am
After initially saying it had "no plans" for the palm-reading payment tech in Whole Foods stores, Amazon's getting ready to go all in.
On Tuesday, the ecommerce giant announced it would be expanding Amazon One, its proprietary palm-recognition payment system, to 65 Whole Foods stores in California. As reported in Supermarket News, customers will able to pay for their bougie groceries by hovering their palm over a scanner at locations in Malibu, Santa Monica, and Montana Avenue in Los Angeles. In the coming weeks, according to the food retail publication, Amazon One will also launch at additional stores in Los Angeles, Orange County, the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Santa Cruz.
Amazon One was first introduced in the company's hometown of Seattle in April 2021 and later in a select group of locations in other parts of Washington, Texas, California, and New York City. But the simultaneous deployment of dozens of Amazon One locations marks the most aggressive rollout of the technology since the initial soft launch.
Back in 2020, when Amazon initially announced plans to implement Amazon One, many privacy advocates immediately criticized the move, citing past data breaches, a lack of legal accountability for protecting people's biometric data, and a disproportionate negative impact on low income people and people of color. At the time, Amazon assured skeptics that it was serious about protecting consumer data, stating in a blog post FAQ that "palm images" are encrypted and stored in a "highly secure area" in its cloud, and that users can request to delete that data.
Despite ongoing privacy concerns, however, the use of biometric data for payment and identification is becoming increasingly common — just look at Apple's Face ID or CLEAR's eye/facial recognition for security clearance at airports. As we noted when Amazon first introduced the palm-recognition technology, Amazon One sends scanned images to the cloud, whereas Face ID stores what Apple calls "mathematical representations" of one's face on a user's personal device. So not only does Amazon retain your personal information in its own cloud storage, but it also keeps fully intact scans of your palms, making any security breach a potential privacy nightmare.
Amazon One is framed as a tool that makes in-person retail convenient and frictionless — an objective that Amazon has been pushing hard. Its Just Walk Out tech is basically the shopping equivalent of a hotel mini bar with sensors that automatically charge you, so you can buy stuff and just leave without any physical kind of checkout process. But beyond privacy concerns, cashierless shopping also raises questions about where retail workers would fit into the picture, if at all.
When asked for comment, an Amazon spokesperson pointed to its 2021 blog post addressing various FAQs which said Amazon One is a payment option alternative to traditional checkout and that "Whole Foods Market Team Members will continue to maintain all of their current responsibilities."
In similar fashion, Mashable asked Amazon about the job security of retail workers during the January 2022 launch of its brick-and-mortar store Amazon Style with its "magic closet" fitting room. The company said retail workers would be a "big part of the Amazon Style shopping experience" and that "hundreds" of employees will work at the store. Time, of course, will tell.
Contactless payment and ease is the major selling point for Amazon One. "Just scan your palm, enter your mobile number and provide a credit card and/or merchant membership number," says the Amazon One website. "Once you're signed up, you can use your palm to enter, identify, and pay where Amazon One is available – it’s that simple!"
SEE ALSO:Amazon's cashierless tech is coming to Whole Foods storesBut despite the ease of signing up, the potential privacy cost is high, as Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of non-profit privacy advocacy organization S.T.O.P., notes. "When someone hacks your Amazon account, you can reset your password, even change your credit card number. But you can’t change your hand. When biometric data is breached, the harm lasts a lifetime."
Is a lifetime waiver of your unique palm print worth the temporary ease of paying for groceries? Fox Cahn thinks not. "[Amazon] should stick with keeping the products organic, not the payments.”
TopicsAmazonPrivacy
Carlos Beltran made a very interesting hair choice2025-04-03 14:21
謝峰致敬郎平:中國年輕足球教練有一點成績就飯桌上吹噓2025-04-03 13:44
國足VS澳大利亞首發 :武磊搭檔艾克森 於大寶王燊超登場2025-04-03 13:38
曝國足12強賽單場贏球獎稅前600萬 主力球員每人五六萬2025-04-03 13:22
Donald Trump's tangled web of Russian influence2025-04-03 12:59
翻譯透露費南多重傷後曾落淚 盼明年12強賽可登場2025-04-03 12:28
中超賽季引援交易額不足3千萬歐元 巔峰期曾達到5億2025-04-03 12:05
給力 !國足比賽球場空調開啟 實時氣溫為22.8度2025-04-03 11:57
Whyd voice2025-04-03 11:49
日本足協:酒井宏樹退出國家隊 無緣與中國隊比賽2025-04-03 11:46
'Rocket League' Championship Series Season 2 offers $250,000 prize pool2025-04-03 14:19
有趣!本期集訓已有8國腳接受公開采訪 或暗合首戰主力陣容2025-04-03 14:04
觀點 :國足首戰拿分不是夢 這一代是最好和最後的機會2025-04-03 13:51
中超世界第6大聯賽的夢該醒了 國企參與俱樂部改革利大於弊2025-04-03 13:26
This German startup wants to be your bank (without being a bank)2025-04-03 13:11
葡萄牙前瞻:強弱分明之戰 C羅衝擊兩大國家隊紀錄2025-04-03 13:04
國足VS澳大利亞首發 :武磊搭檔艾克森 於大寶王燊超登場2025-04-03 12:39
海港主帥 :對爭冠組比賽很有信心 在上海就像在家2025-04-03 12:30
Richard Branson 'thought he was going to die' in bike accident2025-04-03 12:21
荷蘭VS挪威首發 :範迪克PK哈蘭德 德容德佩登場2025-04-03 12:11