Amazon bids farewell to palm biometrics, discontinues Amazon One for retail

Amazon has announced it will discontinue the use of its Amazon One palm biometric payment system across retail businesses.

Amazon One users will still be able to pay with their palms until June 3rd, 2026, while some locations may end the service before this date, the e-commerce giant said on Tuesday.

“In response to limited customer adoption, we’re discontinuing Amazon One, our authentication service for facility access and payment,” says the announcement. “All customer data associated with Amazon One will be securely deleted after the service ends.”

The company adds that the service “will continue to be available to patients for check-in at existing healthcare locations until further notice.” Amazon started introducing the technology to healthcare facilities last year.

The end of the palm recognition experiment comes as Amazon retreats from physical retail. On Tuesday, the company also said it would close all 72 of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S. The firm will instead focus on Whole Foods Market locations and grocery delivery.

Amazon One was launched in 2020 for contactless payments and access control, initially rolling out the service at some Amazon Go convenience stores in Seattle. The technology was immediately met with suspicion from U.S. lawmakers and that skepticism has continued throughout its six-year existence.

In 2023, Amazon was sued in a U.S. federal district court alongside Starbucks for misusing customers’ biometric identifiers. The duo, however, secured a full dismissal of a proposed class action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in 2025.

The legal issues did not stop Amazon Go from expanding. In 2023, the system was introduced to over 500 Whole Foods locations. The company also made deals with external retailers such as restaurants, sports venues, airports and convenience stores, such as Just Walk Out, which rely on video analytics to track customers’ purchases.

The company has experimented with functions such as age verification as well as new markets, including businesses and campuses which were served by One Enterprise.

Most recently, in 2024, Amazon launched a mobile application for Amazon One, enabling users to enroll in the service directly from their smartphones.

Article Topics

Amazon  |  Amazon One  |  biometric payments  |  palm biometrics  |  retail biometrics