Amazon will let you wave your hand at all Whole Foods stores

MIAMI — Amazon will allow shoppers at all of its Whole Foods stores to pay with a simple wave of their hand.

The company announced on Thursday that it will bring its Amazon One palm recognition system to all of its more than 500 Whole Foods stores by the end of the year.

Amazon introduced the technology in 2020 and it is currently available in over 200 Whole Foods stores. Panera Bread, Hudson Airport stores, and sports stadiums like Coors Field in Colorado also offer this technology.

Whole Foods shoppers who choose to use Amazon One no longer need a wallet or phone to pay, they can simply point their palm at the Amazon One device.

To use this service, customers must provide Whole Foods with their credit or debit card information in order to link their palm print.

Some privacy experts have raised concerns about Amazon One and biometric sharing.

In 2021, three U.S. senators approached Amazon with questions about the technology, including how the tech giant could use consumer data for advertising and tracking, and more broadly about customer privacy.

“Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and respect for user privacy,” the senators wrote.

Amazon says customer palm data is secure in the Amazon Web Services cloud and does not share palm data with third parties.