Not sure why I am learning about this contactless biometric ID tool today (living in Canada for the past 4 years must be it) but the thing exists since 2020 as a payment method throughout the USA, being deployed in no less than 500+ Wholefoods locations. I am not trying to advertise for Amazon here, but palm recognition technology strikes me as a way more sophisticated approach than mobile pay, microchipping, or physical credit cards and paper ID.
I am frankly astonished that, during the pandemic, palm recognition wasn’t used to verify immunization status. I totally hated showing my QR code along with government issued ID to randos on a powertrip behind a plexiglas carefully studying my papers while I wanted to kill them. To the extent possible, I refused to comply, rushing past QR lines like a “distracted consumer” from hell, robust EDM blasting through my headphones, occasionally displaying a “talk to the hand” sign, shouting out “do not comply!” here and there to my alienated co-citizens… Who knew that “talk to the hand” would have been a literal solution. A palm scan would’ve totally saved me the humiliation (and subsequent PTSD). By 2022, I had entirely stopped going to venues and restaurants altogether and am still unable to return due to these painful memories.
And it sucks in a way because I love order and compliance, and all of a sudden I had no choice to boycott venues and intentionally behave like a dork contrary to my nature, because I couldn’t reconcile my law-abiding character with my absolute duty to oppose tyrannical bullshit (in my case it was the health status disclosure that broke the camel’s back, since I was cool with distancing and still am very much into it). For a minute I embraced the idea that I may be a conspiracy theorist, although I only got acquainted with such theories for the first time mid-2020 and in general I have very low opinion of politics. The rule of law is above politics and division, right (RIGHT!) Wrong. The rule of law never stood a chance next to an executive order that took 2 minutes to draft on toilet paper… now, how about a few hundred thousand of executive orders!
Although it’s too late to go back and fix that entirely avoidable fiasco, here we are 3 years later, the same government that brought us the privacy invading mandates is now suuuuper worried about the privacy of porn-consumers. I’m not here to judge, but we have a French Canadian proverb “tu ne peux pas avoir le beurre et l’argent du beurre”. You can’t have it both ways, keep the butter and the money from the butter. Or can you!
The good news is that palm recognition is a win-win. When you register with Amazon One, you would link your palm scan (that also records your veins for a unique biometric configuration) with your credit card, ID and mobile number. This data is only available to Amazon One and purportedly not shared with third parties or law enforcement (unless there is a warrant).
To access Aylo material, all you’d need to do is hold your hand in front of your device camera to ascertain you are not a minor. No names, addresses, or any personal data whatsoever are ever disclosed or stored, nobody looks at government issued IDs, so that, privacy is fully shielded. A VPN will be useless in that respect, as would be Tor, as would be a fake ID. Palm recognition could also be used to block children from accessing social media and literally anything parents decide to block them from. On a side note, please don’t use Tor for porn, it slows it down for everyone else.
In the eventuality of a (cough) new pandemic, palm recognition would also contain your immunization status and I mean your entire vaccination track-record from childhood, dispensing with the need to show government issued ID QR codes and immunization booklets. It would facilitate and speed up visa issuing (i.e. you need 2xPolio, HepB, Dengue, etc for India). All you’d need to do is hover your hand over a scanner and get your visa, board a plane or train, or access whatever venue you need to go to.
And finally, if enough stores take up palm recognition, you wouldn’t need to carry a phone or physical wallet anymore.