Amazon Palm Readers part 2

The decision 

Back in August I wrote a piece on Amazon Palm Readers and, at the time, I said I was on the fence about them. 

Well friends, I’m off the fence! I have an opinion! 

To start, let me explain that any time you’re making a financial transaction you are picking between options that all have real downsides. 

For example, cash is very hard to track and almost impossible to recover if stolen. Swiping cards gives you the highest chance of having your bank or credit card details stolen. The chip is better than the swipe, but not perfect. 

Then there are the last two (other than things like Venmo, Cash App, which we’ll talk about at a later date), the Tap and the Palm. 

Between the two I think it is a no brainer. 

The tap system actually creates a unique ID for each individual purchase, making it extremely difficult for your card details to be stolen. While the technology isn’t perfect (and not ubiquitous yet), it is improving quickly. 

The palm scanners are also extremely secure -- no one’s palm is exactly the same and therefore, unless you steal someone’s hand a la Total Recall, your info is pretty safe. The downside, which I think overrides the security at this point, is that the companies that control the Palm Reader technology (aka Amazon) now have access to biological data on the users above and beyond the already huge wealth of information they have. For now, this feels like information I’d rather not give away for free. 

Maybe the inevitable is moving us toward palm readers and iris scanners as the way of identification and payment. Maybe in a few years I’ll feel like that’s okay because I’ve been slowly whittled down into thinking it is normal. Or maybe the future is going to include a backlash to this kind of data mining. Who knows?!

But, for now, I don’t see an upside to Amazon knowing even more about me than they did before. And, let’s be honest, is it soooo hard to tap a card?! 

As always, I’m rooting for you.

XOXO,

P.S. I didn’t even touch Apple Pay or Google Wallet today! If you are curious about my thoughts or want me to one big comparison for all the ways to pay, shoot me an email at caroline@verdiadvising.com