Lawmakers ask Amazon what it plans to do with palm print biometric data – TechCrunch

A bunch 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 corporate 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 12 months, they usually 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 Entire Meals places.

Within the new letter, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Invoice 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 growth of biometric knowledge assortment via Amazon One raises critical questions on Amazon’s plans for this knowledge and its respect for person privateness, together with about how Amazon could use the information for promoting and monitoring functions,” the senators wrote within the letter, embedded under.

The lawmakers additionally requested data on how many individuals have enrolled in Amazon One so far, how Amazon will safe the delicate knowledge and if the corporate has ever paired the palm prints with facial recognition knowledge it collects elsewhere.

“In distinction with biometric techniques like Apple’s Face ID and Contact ID or Samsung Move, which retailer biometric data on a person’s gadget, Amazon One reportedly uploads biometric data to the cloud, elevating distinctive safety dangers,” the senators wrote. “… Knowledge safety is especially essential in the case of immutable buyer knowledge, like palm prints.”

The corporate 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 handy over delicate private knowledge.

There’s loads of purpose to be skeptical. Amazon has confronted fierce criticism for its different large biometric knowledge challenge, the AI facial recognition software program often called Rekognition, which the corporate supplied to U.S. legislation enforcement companies earlier than ultimately backtracking with a moratorium on policing purposes for the software program final 12 months.