Russell Brand sounds alarm over Amazon's 'hand wave' payment system
Brand warns that embrace of the technology is a step closer to eroding our freedom.
Social commentator and comedian Russell Brand is raising the alarm on Amazon’s new biometric payment service, which it just launched in California and Texas, suggesting that it could lead to the creation of a social credit system.
Brand warns that the move is a step closer to eroding our freedom.
In his “Awakening with Russell” show on Monday, Brand shed light on the new system, which is being implemented in Amazon-owned Whole Foods stores across the two states. The stores are implementing palm scanning payment systems that only require buyers to wave their hands to pay for their groceries.
In his video, titled, “It’s happening,” Brand warned about the slow creep of such technologies and wondered aloud if this kind of technology could be used – or rather misused – to compile databases for law enforcement.
“Move over freedom more like,” Brand said. “It’s not only ApplePay who’s the competitor here. It’s the concept of liberty.”
Brand stated that the driving force behind these technologies, aside from the obvious convenience they provide to users, includes less-benevolent motives, including data harvesting and increased power for companies like Amazon to have over their customers.
“When we know Amazon have relationships with the police state, with CIA, with the FBI, with the government, have been guilty of handing over data without consent before,” Brand stated. “Oughten we be querying whether or not this is simply for our convenience or right from the get go.”
Brand highlighted numerous news segments with news reporters glossing over the obvious privacy concerns posed by the palm scanning technology by treating it like a newfangled gimmick for convenience, all of whom repeated the same mantra, just “wave of the hand.”
“‘All you gotta do is see Kylie there’s a little device down here…” Brand said in a mock voice. “‘It’s not like it says literally in the Bible that the mark of the beast will be rendered in the palm of your hand or anything like that. Don’t worry just walk face first into Armageddon without questioning it. It’s convenient having an Apocalypse.'”
Brand compounded his criticism of the technology by mocking Joe Biden to state that the U.S. president struggles to carry out simple tasks, and asked if we are just as bad in our apathy toward privacy-killing technologies.
“Are we? Or if you got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear. Just give all your data to Amazon and let them give that data to whoever they want,” he said.
“Let’s just hope there’s never a point when they start saying ‘what are your political beliefs?'” he added. “The social credit score you. ‘Do you have the medications we want. Do you believe what we want you to believe. Are you interested in freedom are ya? You’re not interested in controlling your own life are you?'”
“Just wave your hand,” Brand stated. “Bye, bye freedom. Bye.”
WATCH:
Rebel News LIVE!
Rebel News Live is coming to Toronto on May 11. Get tickets now to the most provocative, most interesting, and most freedom-oriented conference in Canada!
Buy ticketsDon't Get Censored
Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.
Don't Get Censored
Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.