Amazon wants to pay you a measly $10 for your palm print

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Amazon has been trying to get people to enroll in its palm-scanning, you-are-the-credit-card payment method, Amazon One, for some time now. The company’s latest promotion to get you to sign away the important creases on your hand? A paltry $10 in promotional credit, that only works at Amazon.

Yes, your beloved biometrics are only worth $10 to the company that Jeff Bezos created before he got bored and took up rocket science as a retirement hobby. Ten bucks! You can’t even buy a nice pair of gloves to keep your palms covered up for that price. Sheesh.

READ MORE: Amazon will pay you $2 a month to monitor your phone

The dystopian future that Amazon envisions sounds great, on the face of things. I mean, shopping with no checkout lines, no need to carry your credit cards, and no need for personal privacy.

The thing is, it’s trading away your literal fingerprints (and more!) for convenience. What happens when Amazon’s cloud-based biometrics server gets hacked, and thieves can recreate more than just the last four digits of your Social, or the last credit card attached to your account?

What happens if the data in those scanned palmprints gets printed out, put on gloves, and is then found at the scene of a murder or other crime? Will the police believe your cries of innocence? Will Amazon care as you get sent to prison, and put to work packing up outgoing Amazon orders?

Ok, that last one might be a bit drastic, but it’s only a matter of time before someone with more entrepreneurial spirit than actual soul realizes what that would do for the company’s bottom line.

Please, don’t give your palm prints to Amazon, especially not for a mere $10. Amazon has a shaky history of using biometrics with a flawed facial recognition system that they sold to law enforcement agencies. Do you really believe they won’t sell your finger and palm prints?

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.