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Funny enough, I had pretty much the same skepticism as the author re: Amazon Key. With IOT "security" scandals floating by seemingly daily, this feels like a po

Funny enough, I had pretty much the same skepticism as the author re: Amazon Key. With IOT "security" scandals floating by seemingly daily, this feels like a poor tradeoff. _However,_ this product seems like a great opportunity for a small hack: install the whole thing as a locker/bench/cabinet on your front porch. Almost all of the convenience, and no increase in risk. In fact, I'm a touch surprised that this isn't how the product was conceived and launched in the first place: as a personal package locker.

EliRivers 9y ago
One can replicate this in all but one respect already; I've a big box by the door to put parcels in. It doesn't lock; you just open it and put the parcel inside. I expect it wouldn't work for everyone, but I'm yet to have anything stolen from it in a decade or so or using this system.
- ng12 9y ago
  Depends on where you live. I used to live in a pretty sleepy neighborhood that had a huge problem with package theft, largely owing to having a middle school on one side and a low-income neighborhood on the other.
  - EliRivers 9y ago
    Were the packages left in plain sight? In my experience (which, sure, is anecdotal), people don't stop by my box every day to check if there's anything inside it to steal.
brainfire 9y ago
Something very close to that did launch first: Amazon Hub. It's a shared unit for apartment buildings though. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/amazon-made-a-package-delivery-locker-specifically-for-apartments/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/amazo...