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Amazon's palm-scanning service now lets you sign up from your phone
- hereme888 3y agoThey're literally asking for backlash and negative coverage from conspiracy theorists, privacy enthusiasts, and religious groups. What's next, retinal scan? Oh wait...lol
- RaftPeople 3y agoI read that as "rectal" scan...
- culopatin 3y agoI don’t understand what problem this fixes for me as a customer
- brevitea 3y agoYou don't have to carry around credit cards or cash. Instead you can "pay with your palm." You can link your biometric data (e.g., palm print) to your payment information (e.g., your credit/debit card). It increases user privacy and security in that you don't have to walk around with vulnerable "tap to pay" cards in your pockets.
- endgame 3y agoWhat increases my privacy more is paying with cash.
- drivers99 3y agoI use the pay with palm thing at Whole Foods (owned by Amazon) every day. That also puts in your Prime membership which discounts some things. But that's completely the opposite of privacy. I use the self check-outs which are really fast and efficient there. They don't don't take cash at those though; they have them taped over! When I was on a cash/privacy kick a while back, I noticed paying the self-checkouts with cash (like at Target) was even faster than using a card.
- brevitea 3y ago> "But that's completely the opposite of privacy." Agreed. Privacy is my RFID credit cards not being scanned. Amazon would then hold my user data and sell it to whoever... Which they would also do via my credit card.
- hobobaggins 3y ago"increases user privacy and security" You really think that? Tap to pay cards are easily replaced (revoked) and at no cost to me at all. The only way to revoke my palm is too awful to contemplate!
- brevitea 3y agoUnless you are using an RFID-blocking wallet, I can walk around with a RFID reader and steal your data from your card(s) without you ever knowing. RFID readers are also installed at gas station pumps, and can grab the data from your card. I'm not advocating for Amazon to have my palm print. I'm simply describing why it is better than current RFID credit cards. Palm print is also better than eye scan or fingerprint scan, as fingerprints are not as unique as once thought (i.e., collisions can happen) and fingerprints have been successfully replicated using AI.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- boppo1 3y agoI struggle to understand how someone with enough tech awareness to be on HN doesn't feel appalled by palm scanners.
- culopatin 3y agoSame
- culopatin 3y agoYou lost me at “increases privacy”. You don’t carry your phone with you?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- renewiltord 3y agoI love this feature. I just walk into Whole Foods on my way home, grab something to cook, wave my palm over and it applies my prime code, picks my default card, and pays super fast. Honestly, really nice.
- boppo1 3y agoAs things continue to get increasingly dystopian, I will remember this comment.
- ratg13 3y agoAmazon has a track record of giving users private data to the police without their consent. You could literally find yourself in the middle of a murder trial at the cost of saving 30 seconds at the supermarket.
- renewiltord 3y agoWell, I don’t plan on killing anyone so I don’t mind having an alibi.
- jvolkman 3y agoThey have these at the Lumen Field (football/soccer stadium in Seattle), mixed with their "just walk out" tech. Scan palm, grab beer and/or hot dog, leave. All without talking to anybody or showing any ID.
- throwaway743 3y agoI mean, the palm is the ID. It's more personal of an ID than a card is.
- rjzzleep 3y agoThe crazy thing to me is that that this is exactly the same as the face scan payment or checkin that Alipay in China does. With the little difference that since it is not regulated by government there is zero oversight on what Amazon does with that data. But somehow people can rationalize this as a net good for themselves, and since China is inherently evil the Chinese version is dystopian.
- google234123 3y agoChina is dystopian… has Amazons leadership caused the death of 45 million people in 4 years? https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/east-asia/china/report-china/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/eas...
- rjzzleep 3y agoYou can't just make up random numbers.
- google234123 3y agoYou tell me how many people died in the cultural revolution then
- mynameisvlad 3y ago
- MPSimmons 3y agoHow do I rotate the key on my hand?
- hiddencost 3y agoBiometrics are best consider as equivalent to a user name (i.e., identifying but not secure). Unfortunately many people seem to use them as if they were a combination username and password.
- Shawnj2 3y agoI’m a little surprised we don’t have 3 factor auth since smartphones make this easy to implement 1- something you are: required bio scan on phone 2- something you know- required password 3- something you have- your phone with 2FA already set up