Panera Bread is implementing palm scanners, which the company claims will make it ‘easier’ for customers by linking their fingerprints to their loyalty accounts and allowing them to use their palms as a form of contactless payment.
Panera is using Amazon’s palm-scanning or cashier-less checkout technology which is being used in more than 200 establishments in and outside the company.
“Today, Panera Bread announced its planned rollout of Amazon One as a loyalty identification for MyPanera, its industry-leading loyalty program with 52+ million members, and a contactless payment method,” the company announced Wednesday.
“The technology is deployed at select bakery-cafes in Panera’s hometown of St. Louis with plans to expand to additional locations in the coming months. Panera is the first national restaurant company to use Amazon One as both a way for guests to pay and access their loyalty account with their palm,” it added…
Concerns have been raised that government agencies or hackers may tap into data.
“Federal agencies like Customs and Border Protection have experienced devastating hacks where large databases of biometric information have been stolen,” Fight for the Future told CBS MoneyWatch in an email. “Do we really expect Amazon, or Panera, to have better cybersecurity practices?”