10 ms·
> All this raises a big question, however: will Prime customers trust Amazon to monitor their homes around the clock, and to know when it’s okay to unlock their
by staticelf 9y ago
> All this raises a big question, however: will Prime customers trust Amazon to monitor their homes around the clock, and to know when it’s okay to unlock their doors for a stranger? And will the benefit of having your packages delivered quickly and securely outweigh any concerns about privacy and security customers might have?
Probably, but I wouldn't. The idea of giving a company full access to your locks is a bit wtf in my books.
- craftyguy 9y agoThat's not a "bit wtf", that's a massively huge WTF?!
- ghaff 9y agoMost things in life are a tradeoff. At various times, most people give access to their house to various service people. Arguably, random delivery people is a bit different but, on the other hand, their access is presumably logged. And, at the same time, package delivery is a PITA for many. For me, it's simple. They leave packages by the door and I've never had an issue but that's not true everywhere. I agree that some sort of lock box outside is probably preferable most of the time but this option doesn't seem out of the bounds of common sense.
- pythonaut_16 9y agoIf this kind of service becomes common I could see homes being built with or retrofitted with "airlocks" so that you can give delivery services access to a secure area to deliver packages without gaining access to the whole home. I wonder if you could outfit the smart lock on a shed or secure package box and let them deliver to that?
- chrisper 9y agoYou mean a porch with a porch door? No need for a fancy name like "airlock" ;)
- majewsky 9y agoHow does a porch look on an apartment (building), then?
- Kluny 9y agoLots of apartments already have airlocks.
- send_computers 9y agoVery similar to an airlock
- BoorishBears 9y agoLots of options. My apartment and several in the area, have a concierge, and they’ll act as a “porch” and even deliver it to your door later in the day Some apartments have mail rooms, some with automated entry based on if you have a package or not It’s largely a solved problem
- ThomPete 9y agoNot on manhattan. There are a lot of issues in older building complexes as they werent build for the amount of deliveries we see today.
- cat199 9y agoprobably had more deliveries: dairy man mailman seltzer water man whomever else delivered stuff man but, they also probably had someone at home all day.
- ThomPete 9y agoIt's a real problem. People getting giant boxes, rooms not being big enough. Delivery is very different than it used to be.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- toomuchtodo 9y agoI would not give Amazon access to my home, but I would purchase the equivalent of a small Amazon locker to be bolted to the concrete walkway on the side of my house. EDIT: @vidarh: I was unaware. Thank you! Going to look for one that is weatherproof and I can paint Amazon Locker yellow.
- vidarh 9y agoYou can already get that. Search for "delivery box" etc. and you'll find large steel boxes, at least some of which have locking mechanisms that lets the delivery person pull it shut to lock after putting a parcel in,.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- TimTheTinker 9y agoSort of like library drop boxes.
- zimpenfish 9y agoSounds like a job for Milk Chute! http://www.eureka4you.com/home/MilkChute.htm http://www.eureka4you.com/home/MilkChute.htm
- djrogers 9y agoLike a mud room or an enclosed porch? Lots of houses already have such places.
- arkades 9y agoMaybe for people who don’t get large packages we can make a smaller version of this. It’ll even be a convenient place to put letters and other small deliveries. I guess since most mailmen are men and they will use it the most often, we can call it a malebox.
- Numberwang 9y agoI'd be super happy giving them access as it would simplify my life greatly. I'm happy they offer this service. Now if only they could pick up and return my laundry too (like some other companies offer) Or deliver fresh food (like Ocado)
- ballenf 9y ago> Or deliver fresh food... Since they have a key, maybe they could go ahead and get started cooking it for us too.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- afarrell 9y agoQuestion for those more familiar with 4th amendment jurisprudence than I am: if you give a group of strangers access to your home, does that remove your expectation of privacy in that area? If so, does that make evidence against you gathered through warrantless searches of that area admissable in court? Or would it only expose you to evidence in plain view/hear/smell? My intuition is that granting consent for some action to one group of strangers does not grant consent to a different group of strangers, but I am not a lawyer.
- criddell 9y agoNo, I don't think it would. There are plenty of people that grant access to their homes to service providers like cleaning services, dog walkers, etc... Legally, I don't think there's much new here.
- eqmvii 9y agoYou only consent to allow delivery people into your home, not the police. The 4th amendment doesn't have a trickery loophole, your reasonable expectation of privacy is always with respect to the police, not to other businesses and people you give trust to. The police can't set up a fake carwash and then warrantlessly search all of the cars that show up just because you're handing over the keys and consenting to let strangers in. Your home would be no different. Another, perhaps better example: a landlord typically has a set of keys and the right to access a tenant's apartment. In a commercial building, those keys could be held by any number of "strangers" on the maintenance staff. The police still need a warrant, they can't just ask the landlord for a set of keys. That's really not any different from having the "keys" held by Amazon staff members. There are lots of instances where a person's expectation of privacy is low with respect to specific people/businesses but high with respect to the government, and that doesn't weaken their 4th amendment protections.
- DarronWyke 9y agoThis is correct. Also a good overall note here is that the Constitution only applies between the government and the people. Private entities (businesses, for example) are not beholden to respect your rights. A point to bring up with regards to landlords is that both State law and contract law (your lease) enable them to enter the dwelling under very special circumstances, usually such as an immediate threat to life. They may also enter to do various tasks such as inspections but laws usually mandate notice that must be given and how. Here in Texas, it's a minimum of 24 hours written notice for the latter.
- jfoster 9y agoHow much do you know about the company that manufactured your door lock? In some parts of the world, electronic locks (eg. from Samsung) are quite common.
- mholmes680 9y agoMaybe I'm seeing it wrong -- but "giving a company full access" isn't exactly right. Its more, you have "the ability to control who has access to your locks and Amazon is probably your biggest user". Some other anecdotes: When my townhome was broken into, I learned that windows are way less secure than smart locks. If someone wants in your home, they're going to get in. When my house caught on fire, I would have loved to have been able to let the first-responder in remotely as we were an hour away, the fire company was 20 mins, and seconds count.
- djrogers 9y agoFirefighters basically never have difficulties entering single family homes... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halligan_bar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halligan_bar
- emerged 9y agoThen all the delivery service needs is one of these Halligan bars to ensure your rolls of toilet paper and Hawaiian themed mouse pad are safely delivered inside your home.
- mholmes680 9y agoI'm going to buy one of these for my fire company. It took them (I'm told, I still wasn't there) 5 mins to get through my old 1960s solid wood door.
- cr0sh 9y agoI just looked around - full-sized versions are pretty expensive; a 30" version I found from one supplier was around $300.00. Though I did find a 16" version for $80.00 - I'm thinking a tool like this might come in handy for off-roading use.
- mholmes680 9y agoworth every penny, those guys (in my town, volunteers) are heroes.
- kobeya 9y ago> Probably, but I wouldn't. The idea of giving a company full access to your locks is a bit wtf in my books. What if Amazon accept full liability for use of the lock though their system?
- cheschire 9y agoHere's another frightening thought: What happens when Amazon is coerced by the FBI and secret courts to authorize entry.
- Hupriene 9y agoAmazon wouldn't have a possessory interest in your apartment, so they couldn't consent to a search. Amazon could certainly be coerced into unlocking the door, but the FBI could also just use their boots to coerce the door into unlocking on its own.
- EADGBE 9y agoYeah, people on here are talking like their front door is Fort Knox. For most it is not, and as mentioned in other comments, a window is much easier to get through.
- tomjen3 9y agoYeah, reading up on it it seems like I need reactive/explosive armour on my door to keep people out.
- EADGBE 9y agoProbably the same ones with the giant glass sidelights, too. Extra points for no curtains/blinds.
- imtringued 9y agoThe primary risk is in thieves entering your home without leaving any traces. Breaking through a door or windows requires a certain amount of risk and commitment. If a malicious hacker gets remote access to a smart lock the risk is effectively zero.
- morganvachon 9y ago> "If a malicious hacker gets remote access to a smart lock the risk is effectively zero." Especially if said malicious actor can also control the camera that is meant to record anyone entering the home.
- walshemj 9y agoAnd would amazon want the cost of the background checks - I know this is done for some medical deliveries Baxter Health Care does this for home dialysis deliveries (over a 1/3 of a ton a month) but that's a small number of vetted drivers,
- CamelCaseName 9y agoWhat if they simply time the entry? E.g. a courier taps to unlock the door, within 30 seconds, they must tap to lock the door or the local police will be called.
- gregmac 9y agoThere's an approximately zero percent chance the police would be involved in that. Many police forces charge each time they respond to a false alarm, and the cost generally goes up each time it happens. On top of that, an automated alarm signal (with no human confirmation) is pretty much considered the lowest priority call, and they may not even attend at all. This is why most businesses have a private security company to respond to their alarms. They're generally significantly faster (and often have a guaranteed response time), and if a security guard shows up, sees a crime in progress and calls police, it's actually a very high priority call and will get immediate police response.
- ig1 9y agoIt's standard practice for cleaning/home-maid services and a number of food delivery services (e.g. Abel and Cole) already do this. It's just a matter of trust and reliability.
- km3k 9y agoI actually like this idea for cleaning services and such. Now you don't have to arrange giving them a key and trying to track down that key when you're done with their services. Tracking down that key is the worst. They have no incentive to give it back. I'd like to see how Amazon manages the access. Can access be revoked manually? Can you generate your own access permissions to give to a friend? Is this access code a one-time code?
- ghaff 9y agoThere are tons of keypad locks out there already that let you give people temporary codes and then delete them. I don't use that feature a lot but I can see it being very handy if you have a lot of service people who need access to your house.
- rzzzt 9y agoThere are mechanical solutions for revoking access (although it can only be done once in this particular case): https://youtu.be/cKDBoE-kYFk https://youtu.be/cKDBoE-kYFk
- staticelf 9y agoIs it standard to enable them to remotely unlock your door?
- Chaebixi 9y agoEspecially since Amazon Logistics uses a gig-economy workforce. There's literally no telling who you'd be giving access to your home. Could be a burglar with a stolen identity who signed up for a 2-hour shift.
- Zaheer 9y agoIf someone really wants access to your home can't they just pick the lock or forcibly enter through other means? It doesn't seem very hard to access most homes.
- Chaebixi 9y agoDoes that mean you'd leave your doors unlocked?
- morganvachon 9y agoThey can, but the risk of being caught by neighbors and passers-by increases with forced entry. Show up in a delivery outfit, with a code that lets you in the house, and you look legit even to the police.