Courtesy of Amazon
- Amazon is rolling out its palm payment technology to every Whole Foods store in the US.
- The tech is already in use at just under half of the Whole Foods network, among other places.
- Privacy advocates say the way that Amazon collects and keeps palm data raises concerns.
Amazon's palm payment technology will be a common sight at every US Whole Foods store by the end of the year.
The tech giant will roll out Amazon One across over 500 Whole Foods stores by the end of 2023, it said in a blog post. Amazon One is already in about 200 Whole Foods locations, Amazon said.
"This means Whole Foods Market customers who choose to use Amazon One will no longer need their wallet or even a phone to pay—they can simply hover their palm over an Amazon One device," Amazon said in the post. Customers who link their Amazon One account with their Prime details will also get discounts when they use the payment method, the company said.
Amazon's technology links a user's credit card or other payment information to their unique palm print. Besides Whole Foods, Amazon has also used the technology at its Amazon Go convenience stores. It has also licensed it for use to other retail operations, such as Panera Bread and the concession stands at Coors Field in Denver.
The palm-scanning technology has received criticism from privacy advocates. They say that Amazon is collecting biometric data that could be misused. Amazon says that customers have to opt-in to using One, and the data from those who do is "securely collected."
Amazon One is part of a variety of data-collecting initiatives that Amazon has. They range from healthcare ventures to iRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum, and many of them raise privacy concerns, Insider has reported.