Will the public accept biometric payments?

Amazon announced that it had added Amazon One—which lets customers pay with their palm print—to the checkout process at a Whole Foods store in Austin, Texas. It’s one of the first Amazon-owned stores outside Seattle to have the feature.

Why should we care?
Precedent suggests that customers are willing to forego some privacy for the sake of convenience—but a stricter line in the sand seems to be forming. From backlash against Cambridge Analytica to more recent critiques against Sam Altman’s “Worldcoin” project, everyday users eye unspecified data collection, especially biometric data, with suspicion. Many avoid technologies that depend on data extraction altogether, which explains why Apple has doubled down on its pro-privacy rhetoric. It also clarifies the growing use of privacy-friendly search engines like DuckDuckGo. According to The Verge, Amazon wants other businesses to use Amazon One as an identity service. In essence, making your hand become something like internet cookies: tracking you across shops, office buildings, stadiums, and other venues, shaping an accurate customer persona the more you pay with your palm. Real-life feedback has been less than rosy. Red Rocks Amphitheater, a prominent music venue in the Denver area, was slated to introduce Amazon One for ticketless entry. It’s now scrapped those plans after vocal protest from both artists and attendees. “For many of us, concerts and live events are some of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences of our lives,” artists wrote in an open letter to Red Rocks. “The spread of biometric surveillance tools like palm scans and facial recognition now threatens to destroy that…” Amazon One’s slow expansion suggests that for now, at least, fintechs should steer clear of baking biometrics into their business strategies—or else face a cynical and reluctant public. Solving for privacy may make for a more promising product differentiator.