Forget your wallet, Amazon is making body scans the new ID checks

Things just got a little too Black Mirror

Amazon is introducing AI hand scanning to use instead of card payments and IDs. Image: Unsplash

Amazon is taking things to a new dystopian level, announcing its plans to introduce scanning technology that will replace ID checks at bars and clubs and eventually replace your credit cards.

Announcing its newest pilot program in the US this week, the company founded by mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos says it will use palm print scanners to verify a person’s age instead of the good old license and passport options. 

Is the fake ID market one that desperately needs to be cracked down on? Probably not. But then again, did Bezos really need to wear a cowboy hat and try to visit outer space in 2021 during a global pandemic? Also no, and so here we all are.  

The AI technology is already being used as a payment system across a number of Whole Foods supermarkets across the US, and is now going to be trialled in Colorado’s main baseball stadium to stop people from, we assume, using fake IDs to buy beer at sporting matches. 

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Per Amazon’s announcement of the rollout, the “palm-based identity service” that they’re calling Amazon One, has been designed to “remove friction from everyday activities and create a faster and more convenient way for people to pay or enter a location.”

The statement continues that specifically in bar settings, “Customers love the convenience of paying with their palm; however, when it comes to purchasing alcohol, friction is reintroduced as customers must produce a government-issued ID for age verification.” 

While Amazon is selling the technology as a time-saving payment (and now ID) option for its customers, some AI and technology experts have pointed out that the software goes far beyond that and is more about capturing identity information than simplifying payment processes or making wallets a redundant relic of the past. 

Using your phone to log in to accounts and make payments might be a thing of the past. Image: Getty

Somewhat similar to facial recognition software, the technology works by scanning the palm of a person’s hand and using the unique shape, ridges, lines and the configuration of veins under the skin to identify a person. 

To use Amazon One, a person has to be an Amazon customer and sign up for the service, which requires giving over several images of your hands, providing a government-issued ID, personal payment information like credit card details and a selfie to prove your hands and face belong to the same body. 

But playing devil’s advocate here, if you’re drunk to the point of being unable to find your wallet and present your ID without “friction”, maybe it’s time for you to call it a night.  

Originally published as Forget your wallet, Amazon is making body scans the new ID checks