Last September 2020, Amazon presented its Amazon One service, a payment system that works by reading the palm of the hand. The goal was implement it in some of your physical Amazon Go stores.
Now Amazon has launched a promotion, for the moment for its customers in the United States: users they will be able to receive a promotional code of 10 dollars to spend in the stores if they register the palm of their hand and link it to your Amazon account.
This announcement by the ecommerce giant has raised controversy and several media outlets such as TechCrunch, which was one of the first to give voice to this promotion found on the Amazon website They ask what exactly Amazon will do with such personal information and if something so personal is worth giving away for $ 10 credit. These are questions that an Amazon spokesperson has declined to answer, as reported by the outlet.
This is how palm scanning hardware works
The commerce and cloud giant explained in the past that its palm scanning hardware “capture the tiny features of your palmboth surface details and subcutaneous lines or features as vein patterns “to create a personal signature” of each client. This information is stored in the cloud and is used to confirm your identity when you are in one of their stores.
Amazon says it uses an unspecified “subset” of anonymous palm data to improve technology. It is a way of knowing each client. By linking this personal information to your Amazon account, the company can use the data it collects, such as purchase history or the number of visits to its stores, to target ads, offers and recommendations and thus motivate targeted consumption.
Amazon has said that stores the data from the palm of the hand indefinitely, unless the user decides to delete it once you have no pending transactions, or if you don’t use this feature for two years.
Controversy over biometric systems and Amazon’s privacy
Although the idea of contactless scanning the palm print to pay for products may seem harmless (and even logical in times of pandemic where we try to avoid physical contact), raises many questions about privacy, especially considering Amazon’s history with biometric technologies and systems that have had security and privacy issues.
We have the example of his controversial facial recognition technology that he sold to the police and law enforcement agencies and that was the subject of lawsuits alleging that the company violated laws that prohibit the use of personal biometric data without permission. The system was defined as dangerous by international organizations.
We also have the scandals of their Ring cameras, in terms of privacy and security. An example was the ‘hacker’ who spoke to an 8-year-old girl through the security camera in his room telling him it was Santa Claus. The brand ended up being sued for constant security problems.
“Biometrics are one of the only ways where companies and governments can permanently track us. You can change your name, you can change your Social Security number, but you cannot change your palm print. The more we normalize these tactics, the more difficult it will be to escape them. If we don’t draw a line, “were the words of Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, an entity designed to monitor the use of technologies, to TechCrunch.
Situation in the European Union of Amazon One
Since the launch of this Amazon One system, which started in the company’s hometown, it has reached many stores throughout the United States. In the European Union has not landed yet and with the data protection laws that govern the old continent, stricter than those you can find in the American country, it may be more complicated (Indeed, artificial intelligence and biometrics will be subject to stricter regulation under EU plans.)
Do not forget that a few days ago, another retail giant, but this one in Spain, Mercadona, had to pay a fine of 2.5 million euros for the use of facial recognition cameras in its establishments.