Biometric recognition systems, such as your iPhone’s facial recognition or fingerprint scanner, are nothing new in today’s day and age. The world has slowly moved towards using your body’s unique patterns as identifiers for about a decade. However, megacorporations like Amazon and Tencent are now implementing palm print reading systems. Both examples have experts concerned about security risks and ethical violations. Would you trust a company to collect and store your biometric data?
Tencent and Amazon’s palm print payment systems present serious security and ethical concerns.
Amazon’s palm print scanning technology, called Amazon One, was first rolled out in late 2020. For now, they only use the tech in about 100 Whole Foods locations and its 43 Amazon Go stores. However, Amazon announced the service would expand beyond simply identifying users by their palm print. Now Amazon One users can verify their age to purchase alcohol by linking their government-issued ID. And the company installed the tech in Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies, with more locations coming soon.
However, despite Amazon’s assurance that your biometric data is perfectly secure, experts at Syracuse University are not so convinced. According to computer science professor Vir Phoha, allowing companies to store your full palm print probably isn’t the safest idea. Phoha specializes in biometrics, cybersecurity, and smartphone and tablet security. “There is a lot of overlap in the structure of hands of different people,” said Phoha, “So it is easy to spoof. Thus, the security of these systems is not as high as, say, a fingerprint.”
According to the Syracuse professor, companies should take extra precautions with biometric data beyond standard measures. Although, providing private corporations with your palm print concerns Phoha beyond identity theft. “Unlike the face, one has to depend on algorithms to refute any false positives,” he said. “Your face is visible, so one can refute any allegations in a straightforward way.”
Millions of stores in China could soon use palm reading tech to identify customers.
According to MIT Technology Review, Tencent could roll out its palm scanning tech on a scale far more extensive than Amazon. The company owns WeChat, an instant messaging and payment service. Over 800 million people and about 50 million retail establishments use WeChat Pay in China. And Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) executive director Albert Fox Cahn said the widespread rollout of palm print reading services could pose massive privacy risks. STOP is a non-profit focused on preventing and abolishing discriminatory mass surveillance in New York City.
“Retailers get hacked all the time. When most retailers get hacked, at worst, you have to change your credit card number. But you can’t change your palm print if that gets compromised,” said Cahn. He added that these services may save you some time but risk your “biometric privacy” for life. Also, MIT Technology Review points out that the technology is rife with potential abuses by the “Chinese surveillance state.”
Local governments in China already use palm print scanners as part of an “unnoticeable governance” system. Additionally, the company that built the scanning tech used in Chinese subways, Melux, was founded by Xie Qinglu. He also created data processing technology used for China’s mass surveillance system, ironically named Skynet.
