Pay stations in a retail store initiate customer transactions for customers. When a first pay station is unable to complete a customer transaction, it hands the transaction off to a second pay station that is able to complete the transaction. During hand off, the first pay station determines a first set of biometric and contextual data associated with the customers and sends that information to the second pay station. The second pay station then determines, independently, a second set of biometric and contextual data associated with the customers and compares it against the first set. Depending on the results of the comparison, customers are either granted or denied access at the second pay station to complete the transaction. Additionally, all biometric and contextual data are permanently destroyed without being saved to memory.