Amazon's cloud computing subsidiary, AWS (Amazon Web Services), has open to market in a new palm scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when entering physical facilities.
The announcement is part of AWS's annual Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.
Amazon One Enterprise, as the new service is called, builds on the company's existing Amazon One offering, which debuted in 2020 to enable biometric payments in Amazon's monitored cashier-less stores. Visitors to Amazon Go stores can associate their payment card with their palm print, allowing them to enter the store and complete their transaction by placing their hand over a scanner.
While the technology has raised concerns about how Amazon manages and processes biometric data, over the years the company has doubled down on the technology, offering cash incentives to entice customers to register their fingerprints, expanding the service to everyone. its Whole Foods stores in the U.S. and create partnerships with third-party retailers.
Amazon One Enterprise seems like a natural extension for this technology, given Amazon's role in the enterprise software suite and its dominance in the cloud infrastructure market. Despite the remote work revolution, companies they still want their workers in the office, at least part of the time. And with Amazon One Enterprise, they can deploy contactless authentication devices wherever people flow, whether it's office lobbies, universities, airports, and everywhere in between.
In addition, Amazon says technology can also be used to control access to certain restricted software, perhaps where financial or human resources data resides. This effectively positions Amazon One Enterprise as a potential replacement for multiple forms of identification, such as credentials and key fobs typically used to access buildings, and passwords and PINs used to access software.
Businesses looking to install Amazon One Enterprise have the option to choose between two scanning devices: a standalone device that they can integrate wherever they need it, such as a door or barrier, and one that comes mounted on a pedestal that can be placed anywhere. place. From there, workers must register in Amazon One Enterprise using your physical credential before associating your palm print with your profile. Or, if the normal authentication method is a password or PIN, as is more likely to be the case with software, they can also associate your palm print with those credentials during the enrollment phase.
Amazon a company Image credits: Amazon
Different from the retail model
While Amazon's new enterprise palm scanning service is clearly based on the same technology and infrastructure as its consumer offering, the company is keen to emphasize that it is different from the system people use to authenticate in stores retailers. Enterprise-grade data privacy.
"You will not be able to use your palm to pay at Whole Foods Market or other Amazon One-enabled locations, even if you sign up with a business," the company notes among its frequently asked questions. “This is because, with Amazon One Enterprise, we offer a private collection of palm signatures for each company, resulting in strong data isolation and security.”
The company says it stores users' palm print and badge ID in the AWS cloud, although they can remove their biometric data through an Amazon One enrollment device similar to the one they originally used to sign up. check in. Amazon also says it will automatically delete users' data if they don't interact with an Amazon One Enterprise device for two years.
Amazon One Enterprise is now available in preview for US customers.
