First it was the cash, then the credit cards arrived (already without contact), and more recently the payment with the mobile. But the final way to pay for purchases is coming. Amazon is already investigating in a first phase of biometric payment, consisting of a palm reader that would be connected to the credit card itself to make the payments.
The company created by Jeff Bezos is preparing payment terminals to place them in stores where customers come on a recurring basis, such as fast-food restaurants or coffee shops. In this way, consumers would only have to place their palm on a device, which would contact their bank to deduct the amount owed to the trade.
According to the sources he quotes The Wall Street Journal, Amazon already has conversations with Visa and Mastercard to carry out this project, which is in a very initial phase.
In this regard, Amazon filed a patent for what it describes as a “non-contact biometric identification system” that includes “a handheld scanner that generates images of the user's palm.”
Google has already made its foray into the banking sector and Apple has a credit card made of titanium
The Bezos company has already implemented a contactless biometric payment system in its New York offices, where it is used by employees in soda machines and other supplies. According to the New York Post, this same technology will soon reach the Whole Foods food chain, which will speed up the queues in the boxes.
With this system, Amazon could advance to the right its great technological rivals, Apple and Google, which have their own financial-related services, such as their contactless payment services, Apple's credit card or the incursion of the search engine company in the banking business. It would also leave behind, at least for the moment, Facebook and its controversial cryptocurrency, which continues to face regulatory problems.
On the other hand, suspicions related to security and privacy are always present in these cases. Amazon would store in its cloud the biometric record of the user's hand, as well as the banking information already granted by most customers and their consumption habits (whether physical products or streaming audiovisual content).
This proposal, still incipient, can be the first step towards a system so many times seen in science fiction, whereby purchases are paid by retinal scanner, or thanks to a chip implanted in the skin, or even with the record itself of the person when walking.