Amazon’s palm-scanning payment tech will now verify ages

Amazon One’s palm-scanning payment technology now supports age verification. Today, Amazon One customers can buy adult beverages like beers at a sports event by hovering their palm over the device. This feature will debut at the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field. Amazon says more venues will get the technology in the coming months.

Amazon’s biometric payment technology, introduced in 2020, creates a unique palm print for each customer and associates it with a credit card inserted in the sign-up kiosk or configured online. Amazon One profiles are linked to Amazon accounts. These palm print images are encrypted and stored in a secure Amazon One-built AWS cloud with restricted employee access.

Customers hold their hand over the device’s reader to identify their palm’s lines, ridges, and vein patterns.

Amazon can use customer biometrics, payment card data, and Amazon accounts to serve highly personalized ads, offers, and recommendations.

Amazon says it “does not use or sell customer information for advertising, marketing, or any other reasons” in a FAQ.

Amazon claims that palm reading is more private than biometrics because palm images cannot identify a person. The company is creating a customer database that matches palm images with other information.

Amazon One is now available at sports stadiums, entertainment venues, convenience stores, travel retailers like Hudson and CREWS at several U.S. airports, and Panera Bread through a March partnership.

Customers can update their ID on Amazon One to enable age detection. Customers will upload photos of the front and back of their government-issued ID, like a driver’s license, to one.amazon.com and take a selfie to verify. After verification by an unnamed ISO 27001-certified identity verification provider, Amazon says it does not store these IDs.

Amazon Customers can buy alcohol with a palm scan after their age is verified. After verification, the bartender will see a “21+” message and the customer’s selfie, which they can match to the order. Customers can pay by scanning their palms again.

This technology could speed up lines, increasing retail sales. However, Amazon entered this market with goals beyond speeding up checkouts.

One early adopter dropped plans to use the readers after consumer privacy and advocacy groups pressured them. Denver Arts and Venues had planned to use Amazon One for ticketless entry at Red Rocks Amphitheater, a big win for Amazon, but it cut ties with the retailer after an open letter suggested Amazon could share palmprint data with government agencies and that hackers could steal it from the cloud.

After the technology’s launch, a group of U.S. senators asked Amazon about its customer biometrics plans. Amazon is also being sued for failing to notify NYC biometric surveillance law users of its Amazon One readers at Amazon Go stores.

With the Panera deal, Amazon One is expanding despite these concerns.

“We are excited to team up with Amazon One to launch their age verification feature at Coors Field,” said Alison Birdwell, president and CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, which provides food and beverage and retail at various North American sports venues, including Coors Field. Consumer preferences change, and demand for faster service models grows. “Amazon One’s latest capability directly responds to those demands by delivering a new level of convenience to the age verification process, shortening the time it takes to make an alcohol purchase, and improving the overall guest experience at Coors Field,” she said.

Amazon says its age-verified Amazon One is available at Coors Field.