Amazon wants you to pay with a wave of your hand

On Tuesday, the company introduced Amazon One, which attaches your palm print to a stored credit card so you can put your hand over the sensor to enter and purchase items in checkout-free. Amazon (AMZN) Go to stores. (Typically, visitors use the code on their smartphones to open electronic doors inside these stores.)

Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s vice president of physical retailers and tech, told CNN Business that Amazon One had been in operation for a long time before the epidemic. But the timing can be positive for Amazon: consumers may find such contact-free entry and payment technology favorable, and businesses that are increasingly looking at technological solutions to navigate the epidemic also find it attractive.

Yet the idea of ​​assigning biometric data to one of the largest retailers in the United States can also raise eyebrows. Amazon has previously been pressured by privacy advocates who are concerned about its face-recognition software. Amazon said in June that it would temporarily stop selling its recognition software to police. When it comes to Amazon One data, Kumar said the company is not storing any information locally on entry scanners at stores. All Palm images are encrypted and Amazon stores them online.

The company deliberately chose Palm’s identity over another biometric because it could be matched very accurately, and the customer would have to make intentional gestures to use it, he said.

“I encourage people to try this, see how they like the experience, and then go from there,” Kumar said.

Before attempting it, users must insert a credit card into an Amazon One device and hold a palm over it, downwards, so that it can be scanned. In an effort to make the system as accurate as possible, Kumar said, the camera takes tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny parts and palm straps, and captures some skin details like shiro, which are not visible in typical photographs.

After registration, the user places his palm on top of the Amazon One scanner to enter the store. Then, whatever they take will be automatically charged with a credit card connected to their palm. Users will be able to use the same palm to enter and shop at multiple stores, Kumar said. Initially, users will be able to link a credit card to either or both palms; Eventually, Kumar said, there could be an option to hand out one credit card in each palm.

Amazon One is currently available from Seattle’s The Mazon Go stores, on 7th Avenue and Blankard Street, and in the South Lake Union neighborhood. Amazon has not yet said when it will be available at other retailers, or how much it will charge other businesses to use the technology.