Something unique was introduced a few days ago — Amazon One, a contactless payment technology that turns the palm into a personal payment instrument. Initially, it will be used at two Amazon Go stores in Seattle but the technology has immense potential and has the power to change the way payments are made. Amazon One involves processing the image of the palm of a registered user to determine details like lines, and ridges, which are unique to each individual. The resulting “signature” is being used to validate payments.

The company has been working on palm signatures for a few years now and had applied for a patent towards the tail end of 2019. It is not being seen as an alternate payment option at the checkout counter but more of an option besides a traditional point of sale system. Of course, it helps to have something like during the pandemic.

In 2013, Japanese company Fujitsu had launched the Celsius H730 laptop that used palm-based vein authentication. Called PalmSecure, the technology worked using near-IR rays. The veins appeared black when scanned, giving the laptop a unique pattern to authenticate.
In way of security, it has some advantages over other biometrics. For example, the data that is being used to identify the user cannot be easily seen. Fingerprints can be collected from touched surface but it’s way tougher to take a picture of one’s hand and use it to duplicate vein patterns.

Amazon hasn’t gone into details about how the technology functions but it has said that Amazon One uses “custom-built algorithms and hardware” to select “distinct identifiers on your palm to create your palm signature”. A blog post by Dilip Kumar, vice-president, physical retail and technology, at Amazon, says that palm recognition is considered “more private” because “you can’t determine a person’s identity by looking at an image of their palm”. There is also a downside to the technology. Passwords can be changed easily. A palm signature can never be changed. It has the same stakes as, say, facial recognition.

The image of the palm is not stored on Amazon One devices but are rather encrypted and stored on the Cloud. Also, if a person wants, the data can be deleted.

Palm recognition can go beyond just Amazon stores. The company has said that the tech can be made available to others, like at airports or theme parks. “We’re excited to see Amazon One in more retail environments and are in active discussions with several potential customers,” the blog reads.

Meanwhile, companies are also looking at alternatives to password because of years of data breaches and password credential theft.

Until it becomes a reality, consider using a secure password manager, like 1Password.