Amazon One
| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Release Year | 2020 |
| Product Type | Payment System, Access Control System |
| In Production | No |
| Official Website | |
Amazon One was a terminal device with an attached biometric scanner, developed by Amazon. Announced in September 2020, the device was designed to read palms as a means of identity verification before collecting payments, or managing an access control system.[1] The title "Amazon One" may also describe the provision of these devices to a business for use in its space(s) as a service.
Coinciding with the company's announcement, Amazon One was debuted in two of the company's Amazon Go locations in Seattle as a means of access control, permitting customer entry after scanning at the entrance. Amazon encouraged other retailers to sign up to use the service for their own purposes.[1]
Amazon One's palm reader was contactless and worked by using infrared light to recognize the unique characteristics of the human palm. These characteristics (lines, grooves, ridges, veins) would be used to create a signature that a user could then link to a payment method, or directly to their Amazon account. Amazon used synthetic imagery of human palms, produced by generative AI, in order to train Amazon One to read human palms accurately.[2]
In January of 2026, Amazon announced via the Amazon One help page that Amazon One services would be discontinued on June 3rd, 2026. No action was required of users for their related data to be deleted, with the page stating, "Amazon One user data, including palm data, will be automatically deleted following the discontinuation of the services and after completion of any remaining transactions." Amazon cited "limited customer adoption" as the reason for discontinuation of the service.[3][4]
Consumer-impact summary
[edit | edit source]Consumer privacy ramifications
[edit | edit source]Palm signatures are a form of personal biometric data. Biometric data, owing to its nature as being unique to the individual consumer, is more sensitive than most other forms of personal data. The more that companies normalize or demand its use for everyday tasks (and the more that the consumer may cave to such pressure), the wider the attack surface against the consumer may become, as the data then exists in a multitude of places where it may be potentially repurposed, sold (or otherwise shared), or compromised in a data breach.
Amazon One was used in Amazon-owned grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Go as a means of facilitating an ostensibly "frictionless" form of payment.[5] The notion that the consumer's need to use a physical payment method is a hassle for them, and that biometric identity verification is a worthwhile investment toward providing consumers with a hassle-free shopping experience, is a hallmark of the Recognition Economy.
Incidents
[edit | edit source]Customers offered $10 credit to share biometric data (August 2021)
[edit | edit source]In August 2021, Amazon ran a promotional campaign offering a $10 credit to customers that signed up to use Amazon One.[6] In an interview with CBS MoneyWatch, Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), said of the situation:
It's horrifying that people are being asked to sell their bodies in this way, but it's even worse that people are doing it for such a cheap price. I'm terrified that the biometric data used to check out of stores today will be used by ICE to deport undocumented people in the future.[7]
Following the report by TechCrunch and further coverage of the story by other media outlets, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) wrote Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to inquire about Amazon's practices related to the use and management of biometric data gathered through Amazon One. The company declined to comment on the issue.[8][9]
See also
[edit | edit source]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dilip Kumar (29 Sep 2020). "Introducing Amazon One—a new innovation to make everyday activities effortless". Amazon News. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ Gerard Medioni (29 Sep 2020). "How generative AI helped train Amazon One to recognize your palm". Amazon News. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2023.
- ↑ Taylor Soper. "Amazon is ending its palm ID system for retail, Amazon One, as it closes physical stores". Amazon News. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ "Help | What's changing?". AWS | Amazon One. Archived from the original on 24 Apr 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ Sanjay Dash (20 July 2023). "Amazon One palm payment technology is coming to all 500+ Whole Foods Market stores in the U.S." Amazon News. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ Zacl Whittaker (2 Aug 2021). "Amazon will pay you $10 in credit for your palm print biometrics". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ Megan Cerullo (3 Aug 2021). "Amazon will pay you $10 in credit for your palm print biometrics". CBS MoneyWatch. Archived from the original on 23 Apr 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ "Klobuchar, Cassidy, Ossoff Demand Information About Amazon's Biometric Data Collection Practices". U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. 13 Aug 2021. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.
- ↑ "Amazon's palm print recognition raises concern among US senators". The Business Times Singapore. 13 Aug 2021. Archived from the original on 4 Sep 2026. Retrieved 4 Sep 2026.