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Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

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51–60 of 188 posts

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wave your hand over a camera. At this point I presume they collect such biometrics whether I like it or not; they have cameras everywhere.

A grainy image of your palm from a surveillance camera capture is not going to expose biometric data. Your hand needs to be close enough to make out the detail required. Then tying that to your identity is very hard and takes manhours, not something you can replicate at scale. You’re giving them your palm print/vein scan tied to your identity on a plate. It’s very irresponsible.

> A grainy image of your palm

I really doubt getting a reasonably good image of my hand is tough for Amazon. But they don't really need my palm at all; most of the point of that was probably that it'd be much freakier to normies if the self-checkout just said "hi Bob!" when you got close via facial recognition.

> Then tying that to your identity is very hard and takes manhours…

That seems deeply unlikely. I'm probably on 50 different cameras at a Whole Foods, some of which I'd never notice, and at some point I have to check out, which ties all that footage to a credit card and my Prime account if I don't want to pay the non-deal prices for everything.

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#53
post #13

This is sad. I loved paying by palm at Whole Foods because it was definitely the fastest way to do things. You just scanned and you were out. Now I've got to slowly type in my phone number for Prime and then tap my watch and select the right credit card (palm scan always used my groceries card). Ah well, perhaps adoption was low.

Is it really that hard to take an credit card out your purse or wallet and tap it that you were happy to hand over biometric data to amazon?

The useful data in that story is the eating and shopping habits collected by the transaction. What are they going to do with the arrangement of lines on your palm, likely stored as a compressed latent vector not useful for reconstruction?

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#54
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the alternative isn't taking a credit card out of my wallet and all that. It's scanning my Amazon Prime QR code and then tapping my watch after selecting the credit card. But it isn't "hard" per-se, just mildly inconvenient, and yes it doesn't take much inconvenience for me to volunteer my biometrics. Clearly that isn't sufficiently common a position or they wouldn't be removing it so your surprise is likely quite…

Amazon prime is tied to your credit card. One single action to pay: tap credit card against reader Why do you have so many hoops to jump through like presenting QR code and tapping watch

I would love that, but it doesn't seem to happen for me if I use the credit card that I have linked to my Amazon Prime membership as the payment method. When I tap it doesn't recognize my Prime membership. Do you have the Amazon Prime credit card perhaps?

The reason why I did the QR code and watch tap thing prior to the palm thing is that I didn't want to carry a single-use credit card.

I'd love the functionality you're talking about. Do you remember how you set it up to get that? Would love to have my grocery card automatically recognized as being linked to a Prime membership.

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#55
post #48
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh the alternative isn't taking a credit card out of my wallet and all that. It's scanning my Amazon Prime QR code and then tapping my watch after selecting the credit card. But it isn't "hard" per-se, just mildly inconvenient, and yes it doesn't take much inconvenience for me to volunteer my biometrics. Clearly that isn't sufficiently common a position or they wouldn't be removing it so your surprise is likely quite…

I find scanning QR codes at the POS hugely inconvenient compared to paying with my watch. The discount has to be substantial for me to ever scan them. Retailer apps are often surprisingly (expectably?) bad at dealing with spotty/no connectivity, and even if they aren't, getting my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it, opening the right app, getting to the right screen in it (oh, did it just log me out?) etc. takes ab…

I like linking to the Amazon account because apart from the discounts (which are nice), it puts the receipt in my Amazon orders list. Yes, at Gus's there's no such linking feature or discount and I just tap my watch after selecting the appropriate card.

Amazon's app is just like what you describe. It is extraordinarily slow and needs a high-speed data network.

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now I've got to slowly type in my phone number for Prime Haven't the (big) supermarkets in the US adopted the whole "scan and go" thing that lots of countries in Europe have had for a long time? (maybe more than a decade at this point I think) When I go to the supermarket, right after the entrance, I pick up a scanner, then as I pick stuff, I scan them and pack them. Then when I'm done, you scan a code, give back t…

Haha no. US commerce improvements tend to trail EU by a decade. We just got tap to pay a couple of years ago. People still pass bits of paper with signatures on them to pay each other for stuff.

> We just got tap to pay a couple of years ago

You mean NFC payments? :| Oh, and checks too? I guess things were very different than my assumption, interesting thing to have learned today. Thanks!

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#57
I found the palm payment at Whole Foods to be very convenient for the same reason as others in this thread.

The steps without using Amazon One were

* open the amazon app

* open the checkout thing

* click the QR code button

* click the amazon QR code

* Scan it

* Open Apple Wallet

* Pay

I hope that they will at least add the amazon QR code to apple wallet to make payment faster in store. That or something to make payment (with Amazon Prime link) as fast as with Amazon One even while not continuing Amazon One itself.

I wonder if they could use a NFC tag or something to quickly open the amazon app on your phone to pay or something?

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A grainy image of your palm from a surveillance camera capture is not going to expose biometric data. Your hand needs to be close enough to make out the detail required. Then tying that to your identity is very hard and takes manhours, not something you can replicate at scale. You’re giving them your palm print/vein scan tied to your identity on a plate. It’s very irresponsible.

> A grainy image of your palm I really doubt getting a reasonably good image of my hand is tough for Amazon. But they don't really need my palm at all; most of the point of that was probably that it'd be much freakier to normies if the self-checkout just said "hi Bob!" when you got close via facial recognition. > Then tying that to your identity is very hard and takes manhours… That seems deeply unlikely. I'm probabl…

Faces are easier to change. Grow a beard, wear some glasses, put on some weight or some surgery if you really need to. Can’t change your eye print, finder prints, vein pattern or DNA.

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A grainy image of your palm I really doubt getting a reasonably good image of my hand is tough for Amazon. But they don't really need my palm at all; most of the point of that was probably that it'd be much freakier to normies if the self-checkout just said "hi Bob!" when you got close via facial recognition. > Then tying that to your identity is very hard and takes manhours… That seems deeply unlikely. I'm probabl…

Faces are easier to change. Grow a beard, wear some glasses, put on some weight or some surgery if you really need to. Can’t change your eye print, finder prints, vein pattern or DNA.

That's not really been the case for years now.

Apple's FaceID can figure out who you are even with a N95 mask and sunglasses on.

And in most scenarios, you're gonna a) pay with a card with your name on it and b) head out to your car with its unique ID prominently displayed on it.

Re: Amazon One palm authentication discontinued

#60
post #13

This is sad. I loved paying by palm at Whole Foods because it was definitely the fastest way to do things. You just scanned and you were out. Now I've got to slowly type in my phone number for Prime and then tap my watch and select the right credit card (palm scan always used my groceries card). Ah well, perhaps adoption was low.

> Now I've got to slowly type in my phone number for Prime Haven't the (big) supermarkets in the US adopted the whole "scan and go" thing that lots of countries in Europe have had for a long time? (maybe more than a decade at this point I think) When I go to the supermarket, right after the entrance, I pick up a scanner, then as I pick stuff, I scan them and pack them. Then when I'm done, you scan a code, give back t…

Despite others saying that they have never seen it, Meijer stores have this, except instead of a store scanner you use your phone with an app. There are other reasons too, but this is a big part of why my family shops at Meijer compared every other store near us.
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