Is the woman in the video shown to be paying for her groceries using a microchip hand implant? No, that's not true: the woman in the video, who goes by the TikTok handle @chipgirlhere, admitted that she used Amazon One, a palm-scanning payment system that has been rolling out in Whole Foods stores in the United States since 2021, to pay for her groceries.
The claim originated from a video published by TikTok user @dana19722 (archived here), on August 7, 2023, with the caption (translated from Romanian to English by Lead Stories staff):
If humankind is represented by this destroyed woman, then we are lost as a species!
A caption in English reads:
The public has no idea whats coming. Things will escalate very quickly now
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Aug 21 06:39:33 2023 UTC)
Following millions of views and mixed reactions about the credibility of the video, Burgundy Waller, known as @chipgirlhere on TikTok, later admitted that she used Amazon One, Amazon's palm-scanning paying system to pay for her groceries, and not a hand chip. However, the woman does claim that she uses an implant in her hand to open her home door, which cannot be fact-checked. The Whole Foods video has been removed from her TikTok feed in the meantime.
Amazon One, which debuted in September 2020, allows shoppers to pay for items by placing their palms over a scanning device. The first time shoppers use the kiosk, they have to insert a credit card to link it with their palm print, but after that, shoppers can pay simply by holding their hand over the kiosk. In July 2023, Amazon announced that Amazon One's palm payment technology will be coming to all 500+ Whole Foods Market stores in the United States.
Even though there are several private companies offering commercial microchips to be inserted into palms and hands, like Walletmor, this procedure has not been approved for wide useage by international regulatory authorities.
