China has taken a step into the future with a new cardless method of payment that requires little more than a hand swipe.
Thanks to the new system, Weixin Palm Payment, people in mainland China can scan their palms to take the subway or enter an office building where they work.
Tencent, founded in 1998, is one of China’s largest tech companies. It has a massive digital and technology footprint in entertainment, gaming, fintech, and social media. Weixin Palm Payment is just one of its many consumer offerings. By understanding the tech and consumer landscapes, Tencent aims to bring technology to the masses and make it mainstream.
Guo Rizen, vice general manager of Tencent’s Weixin Pay Industry Application unit, recently told CNN, “We have confidence in this.”
North American tech giant Amazon has used a similar innovative technology of its own design, Amazon One, for years. It allows customers to make payments using biometric scanning to create a unique palm signature for each user linked to their payment information.
With branding phrases such as “Weixin’s Palm Scan Payments Is Like Waving at a Friend,” consumers can hover their hands over a sensor, allowing an infrared camera to read an individual’s unique palm print and the veins under their skin. Once approved, the transaction happens within seconds.
While it is convenient not to carry around a wallet or cell phone, advanced technology of this sort often raises security and privacy issues.
Edward Santow, industry professor of responsible technology at the University of Technology Sydney, says that people “don’t want to participate in some kind of surveillance state.”
“They don’t want [that] whenever they’re making a payment for something, for that then to show up on some official register, and then to be asked questions, or worse, about it,” Santow added.
“When your personal information is hoovered up at a huge scale, that creates a kind of honeypot for cybercriminals. And if that information is obtained illegally, it can then be sold on the black market and it can cause you enormous problems,” he added.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on The Debrief’s YouTube Channel on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton and at chrissynewton.com.