Update to this post.
According to this month-old Reddit comment, the La Verne Amazon Fresh will close on November 16. Not sure if this is still the plan.
Tag Archives: amazon
Continuous Authentication HAS To Be Multi-Factor
If you authenticate a person at the beginning of a session and never authenticate them again, you have a huge security hole.
For example, you may authenticate an adult delivery person and then find a kid illegally making your delivery. 31,000 Brazilians already know how to do this.
That’s why more secure firms practice continuous authentication for high-risk transactions.
But continuous authentication can be intrusive.
How would you feel if you had to press your finger on a fingerprint reader every six seconds?
Enough of that and you’ll start using the middle finger to authenticate.
Even face authentication is intrusive, if it’s 3 am and you don’t feel like being on camera.
Now I’ve already said that Amazon doesn’t want to over-authenticate everything.
But Amazon does want to authenticate the critical transactions. Identity Week:
“Amazon treats authentication as a continuous process, not a one-time event. It starts with verifying who a user is at login, but risk is assessed throughout the entire session, watching for unusual behaviours or signals to ensure ongoing confidence in the user’s identity.”
That’s right: Amazon uses “somewhat you why” as an authentication factor.
I say they’re smart.
My Thoughts on the Amazon Ring-Flock Safety Partnership
Amazon didn’t get a lot of good news today, and there was another negative news item that people focused on the AWS outage probably missed.
Anthony Kimery of Biometric Update wrote an article entitled “Ring’s partnership with Flock raises privacy alarms.” I offered the following commentary on LinkedIn’s Bredemarket Identity Firm Services page.
Perhaps I’m industry-embedded, but this seems fine to me. Consent appears to be honored everywhere.
“Under the deal, agencies that use Flock’s Nova or FlockOS investigative platforms will soon be able to post Community Requests through Ring’s Neighbors app, asking nearby residents to share doorbell footage relevant to an investigation.
“Each request includes a case ID, time window, and map of the affected area. Ring says participation is voluntary and that residents can choose whether to respond, and agencies cannot see who declines. Users can also disable the feature entirely in their account settings.”
On the other hand, Senator Ron Wyden doesn’t trust Flock at all and says that “abuse of Flock cameras is inevitable.”
Heck, abuse of citizens by the U.S. Senate is inevitable, but citizens aren’t demanding that the Senate cease operations.
Amazon’s Take on “Familiar Faces” is Not Available Everywhere
(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)
Biometric Update reports that Amazon’s Ring products are offering a feature called “Familiar Faces.”
“In September, Amazon revealed a revamped Ring camera lineup featuring two notable AI features, Familiar Faces and Search Party. Familiar Faces uses facial recognition and lets users tag neighbors or friends so future alerts identify them by name rather than generic motion.”
If this sounds, um, familiar, it’s because Google also has a similar feature, called familiar face alerts, in its Nest offerings.
And like Google, Amazon’s Familiar Faces won’t be available to everyone. If you are, um, familiar withg the acronym BIPA, you will know why.
“The feature is slated for December, though it will be disabled in places with stricter biometric laws such as Illinois, Texas, and Portland.”
Amazon Stale: Southern California Amazon Fresh Closures in La Verne and Elsewhere
It took years, but the long-planned Amazon Fresh grocery store finally opened in Upland, California in May.
But that doesn’t mean it will STAY open.
Four other Amazon Fresh stores will close next month, including one in nearby La Verne.
“At one Fresh supermarket in La Verne, California, employees were told to gather for an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, according to an internal message viewed by CNBC. They learned at the meeting that the store would close in mid-November….
“The other three stores that are closing are in cities of Mission Viejo, La Habra and Whittier.”
The La Verne Amazon Fresh store only opened in April 2022, and therefore only had a life of 3 1/2 years.
Which serves as a reminder that a business can have a crowded grand opening one day…
…and disappear the next.
What steps are you taking to ensure YOUR business survives for the long term?
So this doesn’t happen to you?
Amazon Not So Fresh, Mate
You may recall my series of several different posts about the long-awaited opening of an Amazon Fresh store in nearby Upland, California.
Meanwhile, they may be CLOSING Amazon Fresh stores across the pond in the United Kingdom.
“The tech giant said Tuesday (Sept. 23) that it had launched a “consultation” with employees about the proposed closure of the Fresh locations in England…”
Why? Because apparently UK shoppers don’t want to come to stores. They want the stores to come to them.
“By early 2026, Amazon aims to double the number of Prime members in the U.K. with access to three or more online grocery delivery options through its partnerships with Morrisons, Iceland, Co-op and Gopuff. This expansion will allow more than 80% of U.K. Prime members to shop at least one of Amazon’s grocery partners.”
Funny innit? Amazon shook things up by abandoning its online-only presence with its purchase of brick-and-mortar Whole Foods and its establishment of Amazon Fresh. Now it is partially retreating into its delivery model.
Revisiting Amazon Rekognition, May 2025
(Part of the biometric product marketing expert series)
A recent story about Meta face licensing changes caused me to get reflective.
“This openness to facial recognition could signal a turning point that could affect the biometric industry.
“The so-called “big” biometric players such as IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales are teeny tiny compared to companies like Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon. If the big tech players ever consented to enter the law enforcement and surveillance market in a big way, they could put IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales out of business.
“However, wholesale entry into law enforcement/surveillance could damage their consumer business, so the big tech companies have intentionally refused to get involved – or if they have gotten involved, they have kept their involvement a deep dark secret.”
Then I thought about the “Really Big Bunch” product that offered the greatest threat to the “Big 3” (IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales)—Amazon Rekognition, which directly competed in Washington County, Oregon until Amazon imposed a one-year moratorium on police use of facial recognition in June 2020. The moratorium was subsequently extended until further notice.
I last looked at Rekognition in June 2024, when Amazon teamed up with HID Global and may have teamed up with the FBI.
So what’s going on now?
Hard to say. I have been unable to find any newly announced Amazon Rekognition law enforcement customers.
That doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. Perhaps the government buyers are keeping their mouths shut.
Plus, there is this page, “Use cases that involve public safety.”
Nothing controversial on the page itself:
- “Have appropriately trained humans review all decisions to take action that might impact a person’s civil liberties or equivalent human rights.”
- “Train personnel on responsible use of facial recognition systems.”
- “Provide public disclosures of your use of facial recognition systems.”
- “In all cases, facial comparison matches should be viewed in the context of other compelling evidence, and shouldn’t be used as the sole determinant for taking action.” (In other words, INVESTIGATIVE LEAD only.)
Nothing controversial at all, and I am…um…99% certain (geddit?) that IDEMIA, NEC, and Thales would endorse all these points.
But why does Amazon even need such a page, if Rekognition is only used to find missing children?
Maybe this is a pre-June 2020 page that Amazon forgot to take down.
Or maybe not.
Couple this with the news about Meta, and there’s the possibility that the Really Big Bunch may enter the markets currently dominated by the Big Three.
Imagine if the DHS HART system, delayed for years, were resurrected…with Alphabet or Amazon or Meta technology.
We are still in the time of uncertainty…and may never go back.
(Large and small wildebeests via Imagen 3)
One Product You Cannot Get at Amazon Fresh
I went back to the Upland Amazon Fresh at noon, primarily to see how Amazon incorporates technology into its services.
Amazon Fresh supports the Dash Carts I discussed in a previous post. (The Whole Foods I visited this morning does not.) These let you scan your items as you take them from the shelves, speeding your checkout.
Another device speeds your checkout by weighing your produce before checkout. Looks like you have to manually input the item number, though.
This device appeared to be for returns, but I wasn’t really sure.
As I wandered through the store, I was impressed with the variety of groceries offered.
But I was unable to find one item in Amazon Fresh—something that is readily available at the Dollar Tree next door.
The missing item?
Books.
Remember when Amazon was only a book seller?
Amazon One Biometrics Worked. Maybe.
Because of the long line at the Upland Amazon Fresh, I didn’t want to wait around to activate my new Amazon One account. So I went to the Whole Foods on the other side of town. Then the fun began.
I had previously designated a payment card to use with Amazon One (Card #1). When I went to check out and provided my palm, I was asked to insert this card.
The reader said there was a problem with this card, so I inserted a different card (Card #2) and the payment processed on that card.
After my purchase I went back to my Amazon One app…which still showed Card #1 as my purchase card.
Not sure what’s going on.
Bredemarket 