Latest news with #Amazon-branded
Vox
8 hours ago
- Vox
Why does Amazon want to scan your palm at the doctor's office?
is a senior technology correspondent at Vox and author of the User Friendly newsletter. He's spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology, culture, and politics at places like The Atlantic, Gizmodo, and Vice. Amazon One palm scanners are in use at hundreds of locations in the United States, including NYU Langone Health hospitals and clinics. Vox/Getty Images An Amazon-branded palm scanner greeted me at my last doctor's office visit a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what I'd call the experience. Unnerving? Orwellian? Amazon One is a relatively new service from Amazon that lets businesses verify your identity after you wave your hand over a sensor. The technology first rolled out in the short-lived Amazon Go convenience stores in 2020 and is now a way to pay for groceries at Whole Foods. It's also used for payment and age verification at a few sports and entertainment venues, including at Coors Field in Denver. And as of March, you can also scan your palm with Amazon One to check in at NYU Langone Health locations, which is where I encountered it. So far, you won't be forced to scan your palm to get a beer at a Rockies game or see an NYU doctor, but it's an option. In addition to its experiments in public venues, Amazon One is marketing its scanners as an alternative to the fobs and codes that let employees into their office buildings. Amazon is also working with hotel companies and manufacturers that make security doors and safety deposit boxes to incorporate its palm scanner. User Friendly A weekly dispatch to make sure tech is working for you, instead of overwhelming you. From senior technology correspondent Adam Clark Estes. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Biometric scanning refers to the process of capturing your unique physical characteristics in order to confirm your identity. Whether it's your palm, your fingerprint, your eyeball, or your face, the concept can feel creepy or invasive to some. Biometric scanning can happen without your consent, as was the case with Clearview AI, the company that built a massive facial recognition database from billions of publicly available photos online. There's also a permanence to the collection of biometric data. Once a company has the details of your face, you don't have much control over how that data is used. After all, you can't easily go out and get a new face. Something seems fundamentally threatening about a future in which big tech companies use biometrics to serve as the gatekeepers of our digital identities. Millions of people volunteer their faces or fingerprints, nevertheless, as a quick and convenient way to verify their identities and make life a little easier. With Apple's Face ID or Google's Face Unlock, you can keep the contents of your phone from prying eyes but avoid typing out an annoying passcode every time you want to check your texts. With Clear, you can skip the line at airport security. And with Amazon One, you can save a couple minutes of waiting at the doctor's office by scanning your palm instead of talking to a human. Nevertheless, something seems fundamentally threatening about a future in which big tech companies use biometrics to serve as the gatekeepers of our digital identities. What's especially disconcerting to me about Amazon One is that your biometric data is just another source of data that the company has about you. The tech giant, after all, is a massive enterprise whose businesses span from its eponymous marketplace to a health care company to a multibillion-dollar advertising network. It's not always clear how engaging with one Amazon-owned entity affects your experience with others. AWS, the Amazon division that operates Amazon One, specifies in a supplemental privacy notice that it will not share your palm data — effectively, the image of your hand — with third parties, although it also collects other data, including your phone number and your PIN, when you sign up. AWS, meanwhile, is clear in its broader privacy policy that it can share data about you with third parties, including advertisers. Then there is which is governed by its own separate privacy policies. Related Why your Amazon recommendations are getting a little too creepy When I asked Amazon about all this, spokesperson Alison Milligan said that your Amazon One profile is separate from your profile, and that Amazon One profile data is not used for marketing or shared with advertisers. 'Amazon One palm data is not accessible to Amazon business units outside of Amazon One,' Milligan said. Meanwhile, NYU Langone Health spokesperson Arielle Sklar told me, 'We do not share personal information with Amazon One, and Amazon One does not store any protected health information.' Still, privacy watchdogs caution that when it comes to massive tech companies, it's best to proceed with caution — the capabilities are enormous, and privacy policies can change. 'Amazon likely can infer unbelievably sensitive health care data about people, partly because they have so many different programs and so many different services,' said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC. 'All of this stuff gets tied together and can be incredibly revealing.' Amazon calls its biometric offering a 'palm-based identity service.' You might call it the Everything Scanner. The key of the future is your body The concept of a digital key isn't all that different from physical locks that have been around since ancient Egypt. A password, in theory, is a key that lets you into a website or an account. Credit cards are a type of key too, since they unlock access to a bank account to make a purchase. The big change with biometrics, however, is that you no longer carry a key around. You are the key. The core argument in favor of biometric scanners is that they're more convenient and more secure than the old carry-the-key method. An Amazon One scanner works in less than a second, while tapping your credit card and entering a PIN can take several seconds. Those seconds add up, not just for you, the customer, but also for the business. Both parties also have to consider that credit cards and numbers get stolen with startling regularity. 'It's a lot harder to steal somebody's fingerprint or face print or palm print than it is to steal their cards out of their wallet or their pocket,' said Ash Johnson, senior policy manager at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, or ITIF. But it's not impossible, and when biometric data is stolen, it's incredibly valuable to hackers, because unlike a password, it cannot be changed. There was a major breach of biometric data in 2019, for example, when security researchers obtained the fingerprint and facial recognition data of over a million people. Had they been bad actors, they could have used the data — the code that represents real fingerprints and faces — to break into office buildings. Amazon also says it chose palm-scanning over other biometric approaches because palms don't reveal as much about a person's identity as a face scan would, and because a palm scan 'requires someone to make an intentional gesture,' which protects against unauthorized scans. I actually believe biometric scans are largely secure and the convenience is worth it for certain uses. I'm an outspoken fan of Apple's Face ID technology, and I've allowed Clear to scan my eyes in order to get through the airport security line faster. It's possible that my biometric data will one day end up on the dark web, but I was willing to take that risk when I was about to miss my flight. At the time, I hadn't considered whether I'd make the same trade-off in order to save a couple minutes at the grocery store or in a waiting room. The Everything Scanner It's not the idea of palm-scanning at my doctor's office that bothers me. The new system gives me pause because it's powered by Amazon. Like the vast majority of Americans, I like Amazon. I'm an Amazon Prime member, and a regular Amazon Fresh shopper. I visit my local Whole Foods at least once a week, and just as often, I watch movies on Amazon Prime Video. Thanks to all of these touch points, Amazon knows a lot about me, and I continue to be surprised by the ways Amazon combines my data in different ways — like the time Amazon recommended prescription medication based on my grocery order. It wasn't immediately clear to me what would happen when I put my palm on an Amazon One scanner at my doctor's office. Would basic details of my visit, like the time and location, get logged somewhere in my main Amazon account? Would I get ads for Ace bandages after visiting a sports medicine doctor? Would I get deals on heart-healthy options at Whole Foods after an appointment at a cardiologist? And what if Amazon changes its mind about protecting my biometric data or goes bankrupt, like 23andMe? Amazon denies that it's sharing data across its businesses this way, but it's hard not to feel wary. It starts to feel overwhelming when a website I signed up for 30 years ago to buy cheap books now wants details about my body in order to verify my identity. After winding through the labyrinths of Amazon's various privacy policies and even talking to the company, I'm still not entirely confident that I know exactly how it all works. I definitely don't believe that Amazon has access to my health records, and it's very clear that the image of my palm — my 'palm data' — is well protected. But the uncertainty surrounding any other metadata is enough to steer me toward a human receptionist for my next doctor's appointment. I also can't escape the implications of all this. Tech giants, like Amazon, only know growth, and so they continue to reach into new industries. That's business, sure, but it starts to feel overwhelming when a website I signed up for 30 years ago to buy cheap books now wants details about my body in order to verify my identity.
Business Journals
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Journals
The last-mile entrepreneur: How a Bay Area business owner turned Amazon deliveries into success
In August 2020, a customer came into Ronald Dubon's mechanic shop and asked him to repair an Amazon delivery truck. After completing the job, the customer mentioned that he had many more trucks needing service if Dubon could handle them. 'My eyes went big,' Dubon remembers. 'I thought I was coming up on an Amazon contract to fix vehicles.' But soon, Dubon discovered a different opportunity. The customer explained that Amazon doesn't operate the ubiquitous vans that take packages from its warehouses and deliver them to customers' homes. Instead, it contracts with more than 4,400 independent logistics companies to handle last-mile delivery. Dubon, who owned a delivery company of his own, was intrigued. He completed an online application for Amazon's Delivery Service Partner program the next day. He moved quickly through Amazon's interview process and, by October, was taking delivery of a fleet of 20 vehicles to launch his business. 'My life changed in that moment,' he said. expand Inside Amazon's DSP program Turning his Inner City Logistics business into an Amazon DSP was relatively simple, Dubon said. Amazon negotiates with vendors that supply most of the equipment DSPs need to purchase for their businesses, such as Amazon-branded vans, uniforms and handheld devices. The company also offers access to various optional business services, such as insurance, accounting and payroll software. Amazon's commitment to its DSPs is growing, too. In September 2024, the company announced it plans to incrementally invest more than $2.1 billion in the DSP program. It plans to spend the money on safety programs, rate cards, training, value-added services, incentives and other areas to support the businesses that handle its last-mile deliveries. 'I was awarded contracts with other logistics companies in the past, but it was like, 'Do you want a contract? Do you have a truck? OK, bring the truck and start running loads the next day,' Dubon said. 'The vetting process with Amazon is just a different world. When I started seeing all of these things and the level of the structure, I knew I was onto something that was going to be the future.' Today, Inner City Logistics ranks among Amazon's top-performing DSPs. Dubon's team of more than 100 employees operates 38 Amazon routes across San Francisco, Milpitas, San Jose and Fremont, scaling to as many as 100 routes during peak periods. Discovering the recipe for business success Amazon's training, structure and support to its DSPs has benefitted Dubon's other entrepreneurial efforts, including L'Roco Grill, a Salvadoran restaurant in San Jose. Dubon's wife, Lady Ruiz, runs the restaurant and handles backend responsibilities for Inner City Logistics. 'I used to operate businesses with a fear that came from not knowing if what we were doing was right or wrong because we didn't have that guidance,' he said. 'We learned a lot about how to run a good business. It's been a big change.' Amazon's training also underscored the importance of intentionally building your company culture to serve two types of customers: external customers who purchase goods and services and internal customers who work for your business, Dubon said. 'That concept alone makes a huge difference on how you walk into your building and how you treat people,' he said. 'Not only the people who come in to spend money at your business but also your employees because, ultimately, they are your clients. You need to make them both happy.' Elevating entrepreneurship Dubon's passion for entrepreneurship and professional development extends beyond his businesses. He's helped one employee go on to open his own DSP business, and two more are on their way to doing the same. Dubon has become a champion for Road to Ownership, an accelerated training program Amazon offers to help high-performing DSP employees become DSP owners. The 16-week program includes classroom-style training and mentorship by a successful DSP owner. People who graduate from Road to Ownership receive a $30,000 grant to help them launch their businesses. 'I pride myself on developing the best people and taking them up to the next level,' Dubon said. 'We've done that in the restaurant business, too, my wife and I. This is what I love doing.' The first person Dubon mentored through the Road to Ownership program was Jose Mejia, who started working for Inner City Logistics as a helper supporting the company's drivers. He moved up through the company quickly, serving as a driver, then a trainer, dispatcher and operations manager. 'This is probably the guy with the best work ethic that I've ever met,' Dubon said. 'He is an extremely amazing guy, and I thought he deserved an opportunity for something even better.' Mejia has continued his professional growth. He received a Rising Star award from Amazon for having the best DSP launch in 2023. Today, he has close to 100 employees in the Sacramento region. It is a success story Dubon said he hopes to help repeat by supporting more entrepreneurs. 'I have a motto in my company,' Dubon said. 'I want you to come to my company as a driver, but if you leave, I want you to leave as a business owner.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon Plans to Build Dozens of US Warehouses in Rural Expansion
(Bloomberg) — Inc. plans to build dozens of warehouses to serve rural areas in the US before the end of next year, growing its footprint as the company works to rely less on other carriers. NYC Lost $9 Billion of Income to Miami, Palm Beach in Five Years New York City Transit System Chips Away at Subway Fare Evasion NYC's Congestion Toll Raised $159 Million in the First Quarter NJ Transit Urges Commuters to Work Remotely If Union Strikes The Last Thing US Transit Agencies Should Do Now The firm said it expects to have about 210 delivery stations up and running as part of a broad effort to establish a dedicated rural delivery network that began in 2020. It operated about 70 such facilities at the end of 2023, Amazon spokesperson Alexa Clark said, declining to specify say how many the company operates today. By the end of 2026, Amazon said, it will have invested $4 billion total in the project. The largest online retailer has spent the past decade building a massive logistics operation that includes hundreds of warehouses in and around major cities and a network of bespoke contractors that hire drivers who pilot blue Amazon-branded vans. Businesses across sectors have meanwhile faced pressure to announce US spending pledges since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, vowing to revive the economy and bring back American jobs. Major tech companies in particular, including Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., have laid out plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the US. Amazon executives earlier this year discussed trying to make an announcement with Trump about the company's own US spending, Bloomberg has reported. For rural areas, Amazon historically handed off most of shipments to carriers like the US Postal Service or United Parcel Service Inc. UPS said this week that it expected to cut 20,000 jobs this year and close dozens of facilities as it reduces shipments for Amazon. The ecommerce giant estimates the rural network initiative will have created 100,000 jobs, including the direct employees who staff Amazon's warehouses and drivers who employed by contractors. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Amazon was considering a $15 billion warehouse expansion, including delivery hubs, a move that would reverse the company's post-pandemic construction slowdown. Made-in-USA Wheelbarrows Promoted by Trump Are Now Made in China As More Women Lift Weights, Gyms Might Never Be the Same Why US Men Think College Isn't Worth It Anymore The Mastermind of the Yellowstone Universe Isn't Done Yet Eight Charts Show Men Are Falling Behind, From Classrooms to Careers ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
