Is it really that hard to take an credit card out your purse or wallet and tap it that you were happy to hand over biometric data to amazon?

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arjie 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Oh the alternative isn't taking a credit card out of my wallet and all that. It's scanning my Amazon Prime QR code and then tapping my watch after selecting the credit card. But it isn't "hard" per-se, just mildly inconvenient, and yes it doesn't take much inconvenience for me to volunteer my biometrics. Clearly that isn't sufficiently common a position or they wouldn't be removing it so your surprise is likely quite common as well.

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lxgr 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I find scanning QR codes at the POS hugely inconvenient compared to paying with my watch. The discount has to be substantial for me to ever scan them.

Retailer apps are often surprisingly (expectably?) bad at dealing with spotty/no connectivity, and even if they aren't, getting my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it, opening the right app, getting to the right screen in it (oh, did it just log me out?) etc. takes about 10x as long as arming my smartwatch in a convenient moment and tapping it once the terminal asks for it. It doesn't even require a free hand, since the range of mine is much better than that of passive contactless cards.

	▲	arjie 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I like linking to the Amazon account because apart from the discounts (which are nice), it puts the receipt in my Amazon orders list. Yes, at Gus's there's no such linking feature or discount and I just tap my watch after selecting the appropriate card. Amazon's app is just like what you describe. It is extraordinarily slow and needs a high-speed data network.

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i_love_retros 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Amazon prime is tied to your credit card. One single action to pay: tap credit card against reader

Why do you have so many hoops to jump through like presenting QR code and tapping watch

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arjie 12 hours ago | parent [-]

I would love that, but it doesn't seem to happen for me if I use the credit card that I have linked to my Amazon Prime membership as the payment method. When I tap it doesn't recognize my Prime membership. Do you have the Amazon Prime credit card perhaps?

The reason why I did the QR code and watch tap thing prior to the palm thing is that I didn't want to carry a single-use credit card.

I'd love the functionality you're talking about. Do you remember how you set it up to get that? Would love to have my grocery card automatically recognized as being linked to a Prime membership.

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kay_o 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Any card on your account should work, last 4 must match, I have never entered number or scan QR

	▲	arjie 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh, then my watch should suffice. Okay, I shall try it next time with a Prime discounted product!

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falcor84 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's another small source of friction. I don't know if biometrics are the solution, but I do find for example that I'm much more comfortable buying on a website I've used before and already has my card details, rather than giving them to a new website.

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kingstnap 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The useful data in that story is the eating and shopping habits collected by the transaction. What are they going to do with the arrangement of lines on your palm, likely stored as a compressed latent vector not useful for reconstruction?