Amazon expands palm-scanning payment system to 3 more stores
SEATTLE — In its latest push to collect data on consumer purchases, Amazon is expanding a new palm recognition payment technology into three more Seattle- area stores, the company announced Tuesday.
Civil- liberties advocates, though, are concerned the company is storing immutable biometric information on its customers, which they say poses risks to consumer privacy.
The technology, called Amazon One, was piloted in two cashierless Amazon Go stores in South Lake Union earlier this fall. Customers who have linked their handprint to a credit card pay by waving their hand over a sleek palm scanner. Customers can also link their handprint to their Amazon account, though that’s not required.
The company will roll out Amazon One devices at the Amazon Go Grocery in Redmond on Wednesday, followed by the Amazon Books in University Village and the Amazon 4- Star store in Southcenter in coming weeks, said Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s vice president of physical retail and technology, in an interview.
Amazon dominates the e- commerce marketplace, in part because it collects massive amounts of data on customers’ online shopping habits, enabling it to predict with uncanny accuracy which goods might appeal to specific customers.
Lately, the company has started to collect similar data on customers’ purchases in physical stores — and plans to expand those efforts beyond the Amazon ecosystem.