A gaggle of senators despatched new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy a letter Friday urgent the corporate for extra details about the way it scans and shops buyer palm prints to be used in a few of its retail shops.
The firm rolled out the palm print scanners via a program it calls Amazon One, encouraging individuals to make contactless funds in its brick and mortar shops with out using a card. Amazon launched its Amazon One scanners late final yr, and so they can now be present in Amazon Go comfort and grocery shops, Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star shops throughout the U.S. The scanners are additionally put in in eight Washington state-based Whole Foods areas.
In the brand new letter, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) press Jassy for particulars about how Amazon plans to broaden its biometric cost system and if the information collected will assist the corporate goal advertisements.
“Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and its respect for user privacy, including about how Amazon may use the data for advertising and tracking purposes,” the senators wrote within the letter, embedded beneath.
The lawmakers additionally requested info on how many individuals have enrolled in Amazon One thus far, how Amazon will safe the delicate information and if the corporate has ever paired the palm prints with facial recognition information it collects elsewhere.
“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,” the senators wrote. “… Data security is particularly important when it comes to immutable customer data, like palm prints.”
The firm controversially launched a $10 credit score for brand spanking new customers who enroll their palm prints in this system, prompting an outcry from privateness advocates who see it as an affordable tactic to coerce individuals at hand over delicate private information.
There’s loads of purpose to be skeptical. Amazon has confronted fierce criticism for its different massive biometric information challenge, the AI facial recognition software program often called Rekognition, which the corporate supplied to U.S. legislation enforcement businesses earlier than finally backtracking with a moratorium on policing purposes for the software program final yr.
