Bagels & the Beast (System)
You can get a bagel and coffee, scan your hand and go! No cash or plastic needed to pay. Doesn't that sound wonderful?!
Panera - a.k.a. The St. Louis Bread Company - will be nudging us closer to the singularity—starting at two of their locations in St. Louis, Missouri.
How so? By enabling customers to pay for their purchases using a cutting-edge technology that sounds like something out of the Book of Revelations.
52 Million?
Can you believe Panera’s loyalty program includes over 52 million members? That was a shocking number I found looking into this story—I would not have guessed more than 10 million people were Panera loyalty members, but it turns out they have one of the largest and most successful loyalty programs. Who knew? Povitica bread is not my thing—but I do enjoy some Panera sandwiches and the coffee is pretty good…I digress…Panera’s surprisingly robust membership rolls offer Amazon One a huge expansion opportunity.
That’s right, Amazon One is partnering with Panera to make this happen.
Reading their website, you also discover that Panera’s loyalty program is impressive because not only are they currently including 2,113 bakery cafes, but Panera Brands also owns Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels.
Amazon One will provide the palm scanning technology, and these two tech savvy companies will be working, um, hand-in-hand to give those craving chocolate croissants and French vanilla lattes an easier check out experience. Customers will be able to link their Panera loyalty program accounts to Amazon One, and voila! Their palm does all the work.
Panera was known to be a food service company that’s on the cutting edge with technology before this announcement—and they are officially the first national restaurant chain to integrate Amazon One.
They plan to quickly expand Amazon One’s biometric scanning check out to over twenty additional locations.
The Road to Perdition is Paved in Convenience
“Contactless”
Maybe that was the real purpose behind the plandemic and all of its insane social engineering: CONTACTLESS. People don’t like to touch things anymore and are now ready to jump at new technologies allowing them to make economic transactions without the need to touch those dirty dolla bills, ya’ll.
Panera’s press release touting their partnership with Amazone One uses plenty of corporate-speak: “guest-centric,” “leveraging best-in-class technology,” “frictionless, personalized, and convenient service.”
From the press release: Any private and personal data shared via Amazon One is securely stored and protected by multiple security controls, and palm images are never stored on the Amazon One device. All images are encrypted and sent to a highly secure area custom-built for Amazon One in the cloud where palm signatures are created. Amazon One is an optional service. For more information, visit Amazon One’s website.
The best part of their entire press release: “Amazon One is an optional service.”
We can all relax—no three-letter-agency will be able to…
Something you may not know - in 2021, a group of Senators probed Amazon’s biometric payment system over privacy concerns.
From the Seattle Times:
In a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, three bipartisan U.S. senators expressed privacy and competition concerns over the company’s biometric payment system, Amazon One, and asked the company to provide information about how it keeps users’ data safe.
The letter, from Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; and Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. followed news reports last week that Amazon has started offering a $10 shopping credit for people who sign up to use the service, sparking renewed concern from civil liberties advocates about the technology’s ramifications on privacy.
Good grief, that part about bribing people with ten bucks to sign up brought back awful memories of mayors and county health officials offering free donuts and cheeseburgers to get people to take an experimental inoculation.
“Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and its respect for user privacy, including about how Amazon may use the data for advertising and tracking purposes,” the senators wrote in the letter sent Thursday, noting that previous leaks and hacks have exposed Amazon users’ data.
“We are also concerned that Amazon may use data from Amazon One … to further cement its competitive power and suppress competition across various markets,” the senators added. Amazon has said it plans to market the Amazon One technology to third-party businesses, which could enable it to collect information on customers’ shopping habits outside of Amazon’s retail ecosystem.
The senators asked Amazon to share information by Aug. 26 about how many users have signed up for Amazon One, the company’s data collection and security practices and the sale of the technology to third parties. They also inquired whether palmprint data from Amazon One is ever paired with other biometric data from Amazon’s suite of other surveillance devices, including its Echo smart speakers and Ring cameras.
Amazon declined to comment on the senators’ letter. The company has previously said that it “designed Amazon One to be highly secure,” with “multiple security controls.” (source)
Congress continued to put on a show by verbally talking tough against Amazon through the rest of 2021.
Senators turn up the heat on Amazon, data brokers during hearing
Like most issues — there was big talk by a few big-name Senators and Representatives—but this sums up the results from all the bravado by Senator Warren and company.
There are a handful of proposals in the Senate aimed at revamping antitrust measures, and the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee chaired by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has held numerous hearings on the topic.
These proposals have garnered some bipartisan support, but lack the widespread backing to push them forward. In the House, a package of bills that advanced out of the Judiciary Committee in June has stalled due to opposition on both sides of the aisle. These bills mirror some of the Senate proposals.
In other words, nothing has been done to curb the growing power of Amazon. Their biometric scanners are moving ahead at full steam.
What can you do about it? Don’t participate.
Elephant in the Room
1. Paul O'Grady: TV presenter and comedian dies unexpectedly aged 67
Wonderful importany research! I was not aware of, My favorite read this month.
I checked out my first Amazon grocery store last week... Took a tour with my kids and explained to them the consequences of shopping if shopping there. We must train the next generation of these consequences you outline or the simplicity of the beast system will capture their souls.