Yeah, I'm adding this article to my writing notes, because it doesn't scream "dystopian society" AT ALL. *Sarcasm* (In case you didn't pick up on that.)
Bon Appetit shares my skepticism: Whole Foods Wants Your Handprints. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? From the article:
Jeff Bezos is one step closer to transforming your mortal bag of bones
into a lean, mean, money-dispensing machine. The body part in question:
Your hands. Amazon is rolling out its palm-scanning technology at more than 65 Whole Foods grocery stores in California over the coming weeks.
Customers can activate their palms by registering a handprint via an
Amazon One kiosk or at checkout in participating stores. Along with a
skin scan, you’ll need to offer a bank card, provide your phone number,
and say “yes Jeff” to Amazon’s terms and conditions. Once set up, you
can lug all the organic kale and age-defying collagen powder you like to
checkout. You’ll hover a palm over the scanning device to pay—just as
you would place a hand on the bible—then you’re good to go.
You need to read the whole article, because the author really isn't having any of this. And I'm not either. I remember writing checks at the checkstand, and really, it wasn't that hard. Now all we have to do is jam a credit card into a slot for a few seconds, and off we and our groceries go. Easy peasy. If that's too much of an inconvenience, I don't know what to tell you.
So apparently the way it works is that you give Amazon your unique handprint, they store it in the cloud or something like that, oh, and it's tied to your credit card. If that isn't a security breach begging to happen, I don't know what is.
Look, I like Whole Foods as much as the next person, but I'm also not keen on having my life turned into an episode of The Twilight Zone. So yeah, this one's a pass.
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