Palm ID verifies in US for alcohol buys and in Beijing for subway rides

One, Amazon’s palm biometric payment service, has a new age-verification function. An adult will be able to buy alcohol by holding a palm over a One scanner.

Customers who have registered to use One can start using the new feature by visiting one.amazon.com and uploading the front and back of a government-issued ID and a selfie.

Amazon claims that it does not store customers’ government-issued IDs, which it says are run through an ISO 27001-certified identity verifier.

Only available at Denver’s Coors Field baseball stadium right now, One is being rolled out to other locations, according to Amazon.

One – the core product — is expanding this year, with retailers including restaurant chain Panera and Starbucks starting to trial it.

Consumer reception has been mixed, however, according to some reports. According to Forbes, older consumers expressed the most skepticism following a trial in Edmonds, Wash.

This is not the only major palm biometrics news lately.

This weekend, consumers in Beijing reportedly will be able to use palm payments using WePay, a popular service from Tencent, to use the Daxing Airport Express transportation line.

Daxing is an automated subway that connects Beijing to the Beijing Daxing International Airport.

Palm payments are already being used in China’s public transport system, for example in the subway of Shenzhen, in Guangdong Province.

The popularity of WeChat within China is immense. According to data from BusinessOfApps the service had 1.26 billion active subscribers a year ago.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Amazon One  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  palm biometrics  |  Tencent