Technology / 12.08.21

Palm Scanners Have Some Up in Arms

Access Staff

VenuesNow (12/02/21) Zoltak, James

Activists and artists are protesting against the use of Amazon One palm scanners at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, with more than 200 artists signing a letter demanding that ticketing company AXS and parent firm AEG Worldwide discard the technology. The Denver-owned venue activated the technology in September, linked to its digital ticketing system for access to the space; registered patrons can scan their palm rather than a ticket bar code at a designated entry point. Fight for the Future campaigner Leila Nashashibi said her advocacy group is worried about sensitive data being collected and stored in the cloud, especially when measured against the threat of government, law enforcement and hackers accessing and exploiting that data. "The difference between scanning your palm and pulling and scanning a ticket is like trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist," she argued. Nashashibi added that even when the benefit of biometric scanning is "more than just marginal, we have to think about these as strategies of tech companies to get people to sign up for a product and submit their most sensitive personal information while getting very little information about the potential risks of doing that." Fight for the Future's concerns are not assuaged by the fact that Amazon One is an opt-in platform. Nashashibi warned, "Even just the perception of the added convenience can be enough to get thousands of people to sign up to this technology with no information about the risks."

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