Would You Let Amazon Scan Your Palm For $10? (geekwire.com) 72
"New Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is facing questions about how the company plans to use the data it gathers from its newly installed palm-reading scanners in some of the company's retail outlets," reports GeekWire:
A group of three U.S. senators — Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) — sent a letter to Jassy asking a series of questions about its new Amazon One program which encourages people to make contactless payments via hand scans in its brick-and-mortar stores, such as Whole Foods. Specifically, the senators expressed concerns about Amazon's own history with its user data...
"Our concerns about user privacy are heightened by evidence that Amazon shared voice data with third-party contractors and allegations that Amazon has violated biometric privacy laws... In contrast with biometric systems like Apple's Face ID and Touch ID or Samsung Pass, which store biometric information on a user's device, Amazon One reportedly uploads biometric information to the cloud, raising unique security risks," they wrote in the letter.
Currently, Amazon is offering $10 in promotional credits to those who enroll their bank accounts in the program and link them to their Amazon accounts. Hot Hardware calls it a "slightly creepy promo," asking "What is the lowest amount you would sell your personal palm print for to a third-party?"
"Our concerns about user privacy are heightened by evidence that Amazon shared voice data with third-party contractors and allegations that Amazon has violated biometric privacy laws... In contrast with biometric systems like Apple's Face ID and Touch ID or Samsung Pass, which store biometric information on a user's device, Amazon One reportedly uploads biometric information to the cloud, raising unique security risks," they wrote in the letter.
Currently, Amazon is offering $10 in promotional credits to those who enroll their bank accounts in the program and link them to their Amazon accounts. Hot Hardware calls it a "slightly creepy promo," asking "What is the lowest amount you would sell your personal palm print for to a third-party?"
link your bank account and get $10? (Score:2)
link your bank account and get $10?
Re: link your bank account and get $10? (Score:2)
I've decided to blame Calvin and Hobbes (Score:2)
As FPs go, that was pretty feeble. I hope there are some more substantive thoughts elsewhere in the discussion regarding the corporate cancer known as Amazon. But just for the sake for breaking into the non-train of thought with a (for me) typical meta.
Do you ever get the impression that "reason" itself has stopped working in America? Just reading a weird book called The Enigma of Reason by Mercier and Sperber. My (suspect?) interpretation of the thesis is that reason evolved as a linguistic tool for soci
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Do you ever get the impression that "reason" itself has stopped working in America?
No. The Internet makes stupidity more visible but not more common. There have always been plenty of stupid people.
We have mass stupidity today: anti-vaxxers, climate denialists. But decades ago we had the SRA moral panic [wikipedia.org], crazy conspiracy theories about video games, etc.
Every generation sees the next generation as stupider and lazier than they were. This is mainly due to fading memories of their own behavior.
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Why do they want to scan my palm? (Score:5, Funny)
Is Amazon trying to enter the lucrative market of fortune-telling?
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Mod parent funny and I wish it had been FP.
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How far do you read a typical Slashdot discussion these days?
Actually these days I mostly look at the old discussions that are about to fall off the front page. Click on the "Funny" tab and get disappointed at least 9 times out of 10. Nothing worth saying at that point, eh?
If I'm seriously interested and it's a new story, then I do focus on the first FP. Sometimes I weep, but mostly I have dry eye now. Sometimes I try to formulate my own initial thoughts on the topic, too.
In between I used to search for int
Re: Why do they want to scan my palm? (Score:3)
Or the even more lucrative market of ID theft.
or forehead...? (Score:2)
May I use my forehead instead? I've read somewhere that this is also an option.
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I believe it was the back of the right hand, not the palm - if I'm correctly guessing what you're referring to.
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May I use my forehead instead? I've read somewhere that this is also an option.
There has to be another option, because not everyone has hands. It's a good bet they've got a head though.
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No (Score:4, Insightful)
Just no.
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Next they'll probably bribe the government for handing our biometric data to them and make it legal for them do to with it as they see fit.
Sure, why not... (Score:2)
..Yes but only if they scan it every half hour, 14 times a day, 4 days a week, from my cell phone, until I change the rules without notice.
Minimum amount? Depends (Score:1)
What are you going to use it for?
Who will have access to it?
Do I believe you?
Turn the tables (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just waiting (Score:2)
I'm waiting for when companies all start offering subdermal RFID chips, and every company has its own chip so eventually you have 20-30 different chips embedded in your hand. I figure pretty soon people will have to have tattoos on their hand, or piercings with little tags that tell them which chip is for what company.
And honestly, almost all of this would be rendered unnecessary virtually overnight if Apple would just create an API for the NFC chip in the iPhone and let anyone use it. Then Android and iOS
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He wants to sell us all life clocks (Score:2)
Just like in Logan's Run. Amazon will soon start selling palm implants.. It's all somehow connected to the 10,000 year clock Bezos is building. It's all part of his evil plot to rule the world like some villain out of a Bond movie.
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+5 for both movies.
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I thought that take was absolutely hilarious!
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The older you get, the more you realize that style is a loop. What's old to us becomes new to the youngest.
Nuh-uh (Score:1)
I wouldn't even let Amazon park near my house for $10!
And Jeff Bozos does not have enough funds available to buy any physical print of me.
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Jeff Bozos does not have enough funds available to buy any physical print of me.
You clearly underestimate just how much money Mr. Bezos has.
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I got rid of my Palm years ago (Score:2)
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No mod points as usual, virtual +1 Funny to you my good sir!
Sure... (Score:2)
But I honestly don't know where it is, I mean, when was the last time you used a Palm? That thing has been out of date for about 2 decades now.
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But I honestly don't know where it is, I mean, when was the last time you used a Palm? That thing has been out of date for about 2 decades now.
I actually never had a Palm.
I did go through a few handsprings and Treos though, and NO, I wouldn't take $10 to scan them, even though they've been in a closet or drawer for a while now.
Re: Sure... (Score:2)
Treo is something I dunk in a glass of water and drink when I have a headache.
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I accidentally dunked my Treo in a big tub of bubble solution and had to get an Android (much better browser, much worse to type on).
No (Score:2)
No. They can scan my hand for a several million, after taxes. After all, we've already established that they are whores; now we're just haggling over price.
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I was waiting for this "now we're just haggling over price" comment.
But... they're scanning your palm for money, so you're the whore here.
Last time I checked (Score:2)
I had a phone with NFC, which is perfect for transactions, and I think most other people do also
Amazon already has access to too much of my data. (Score:1)
They don't need my biometrics on top of that.
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I bet they even know about all the stuff I order from Amazon!
Yuck, more filthy things everyone has touched (Score:2)
If we've learned anything from the pandemic, it's that there's sanitary benefits with using contactless payment systems. Has Amazon not been paying attention?
I wish I still had my Palm Pre. (Score:1)
You insensitive clod.
Yes I would (Score:3)
They can scan my palm as I slap it across their face.
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As Powercntrl said, haven't you learned anything from the pandemic? Slapping their face would be unsanitary.
I can change a password or pin (Score:2)
if it falls into the wrong hands, but not my palm print - without painful surgery. Sooner or later biometric information will be stolen, how long before it will be misused and you are told "we know it was you, the biometric signature matches" ? Best being on record of never having agreed to have biometrics taken and used for identification. Your bometrics will be taken whether you agree to it or not but you should not agree to using it as a proof of identity.
No, and... (Score:3)
It should be illegal to offer incentives for biometric data or offer anything that you can't get with a cell phone/email address/whatever else that doesn't compromise you for all eternity.
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What do you mean, "compromise you for all eternity"? What are you, a Q?
Isn't Amazon a second-party? (Score:2)
Most of us already do business with Amazon, so wouldn't they be a second-party, not a scary third-party?
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I thought parties were forbidden because of the pandemic?
Fuck you, Amazon. (Score:3)
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If you fuck amazons, you get death by snu-snu.
i am dissapoint (Score:2)
nobody said "they sure can scan my ..." yet!
Palmistry? (Score:2)
just say no - promotional credit (Score:2)
who wants promotional credit, I want cold cash and a whole lot more than 10 bucks
The answer is "No!" (Score:4, Funny)
I wouldn't let Amazon scan the steam off my piss unless I got to splash Bezos' shoes and pant-cuffs in the process. My palm? Not a hope in hell.
Deep vein (Score:2)
>"Would You Let Amazon Scan Your Palm"
Photographically, including fingers, absolutely not. I would not allow anyone to do that. And that is apparently what they are doing.
But deep vein scan of palm only (no fingers), that would be fine, if I thought it was necessary...
Deep vein palm scan registration data cannot be readily abused. It looks at blood vessels BELOW the skin and doesn't involve the fingers at all. It can't be latently collected like DNA, fingerprints, and face recognition can. You have t
Well, if they promise that there's no downside ... (Score:2)
This is an ad (Score:2)
BeauHD informed us about Amazon's palm scanning in 2019:
New Amazon Scanner Can Identify Shoppers By The Veins In Their Hand [slashdot.org]
Amazon One's Palm-Scanning Payments Are Coming To Whole Foods [slashdot.org]
It hasn't been two weeks since msmash brought up the $10 bribe:
Amazon Will Pay You $10 in Credit for Your Palm Print Biometrics [slashdot.org]
At this point it's just an ad, but because they know the audience, they thinly veil it as a question in the YRO category.
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Maybe they assume Slashdot readers are octopuses, so we can take advantage of the offer multiple times.
$10? Weak. Try 10 trillions. (Score:2)
Then, I will let them scan my palm! Double that for my other palm. ;)
Why would you? (Score:2)
I mean it's biometry, you would just use the palm shape of someone else. If you use your own palm, chances are Amazon will bill you _far_ more than those $10.
BTW aside from the general problems of biometry, this is particularly funny as the 1986 episode of "MacGyver" "The Human Factor" show a rather plausible way handprint scanners can be defeated by activating a latent print. This is probably the first instance of a likely attack to a biometric authentification system reaching mainstream media.... and yes,
Hell no! (Score:2)
Enough said.
Shouldn't be a free-for-all (Score:2)
Hell no (Score:2)
Will Amazon claim they own your print? (Score:2)
I can see it now, Amazon starts claiming to own all of the prints they scan and register. Anyone else wants to use palms? Gotta pay that delicious pre-usage fee to Amazon.
OK to scan my Palm (Score:1)