Amazon wants your house keys!

Would you give Amazon your house keys?

  • Of course

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Never

    Votes: 5 100.0%
  • uh what's amazon?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5

Rac80

The Belle of the Ball
The latest thing Amazon is considering to prevent delivery thefts (packages stolen from your front steps) is to allow your house to be unlocked by their Amazon Key. Of course it means giving up more of your privacy to their Cloud Cam and a smart lock. Would you do this?
https://www.vogue.com/article/amazon-key-couriers-smart-lock-concern

I wouldn't because
1) it could be hacked
2) if you have given away access to your home , a smart lawyer could argue you have given up your "expectation of privacy" in your home; thus countering the 4th amendment (unreasonable search and seizure!)
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
The latest thing Amazon is considering to prevent delivery thefts (packages stolen from your front steps) is to allow your house to be unlocked by their Amazon Key. Of course it means giving up more of your privacy to their Cloud Cam and a smart lock. Would you do this?
https://www.vogue.com/article/amazon-key-couriers-smart-lock-concern

I wouldn't because
1) it could be hacked
2) if you have given away access to your home , a smart lawyer could argue you have given up your "expectation of privacy" in your home; thus countering the 4th amendment (unreasonable search and seizure!)

I would never do such a thing. Why don't they simply provide a service where there is some sort of locker of locked cabinet where the packages can be left? People living in high theft areas should be using the Amazon Locker service.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I will say no, but I did give them to the maids because of highly they are vetted and it something commonly done.

Maids in California are vetted too and yes it is commonly done. But something happening now is that those maids are assessing valuables which they later describe to robbers who can go in at a later date to steal. Unless the maids are live-in, why trust them? This is your home...where you live, love and sleep. Amazon will NEVER get my key, and I will never buy an Echo Show or any smart device which has a camera integrated into it other than my phone.
 

Lord Ba'al

Well Known GateFan
Why don't they simply not leave parcels at doorsteps. Problem solved! It's a bit ridiculous to give some company free access to your house just so they can deliver a package. If you had a little shed in front of the house which could serve as sort of a package mailbox then that would be a different matter.
 

heisenberg

Earl Grey
I would never do such a thing. Why don't they simply provide a service where there is some sort of locker of locked cabinet where the packages can be left? People living in high theft areas should be using the Amazon Locker service.
This is targeting the elitist who have nothing better to do than to buy more crap from amazon and then only to become yesterday's trash.
 
No matter how security conscious we become as a society plenty of people are still morons about it. Part of it is laziness. Part of it is just willful stupidity. If people want to give total strangers access to their abodes then more power to them. They're idiots of course, but that's their business. As long as it doesn't affect me I really couldn't give a shit.

 

Rac80

The Belle of the Ball
Why don't they simply not leave parcels at doorsteps. Problem solved! It's a bit ridiculous to give some company free access to your house just so they can deliver a package. If you had a little shed in front of the house which could serve as sort of a package mailbox then that would be a different matter.


the problem has been theft from doorsteps at Christmas time is very common.
 

Quetesh

Well Known GateFan
I did it for years without a problem. The trick is you only give them 1 key, and when you are not expecting the maids you lock the other one on top.
 

Lord Ba'al

Well Known GateFan
I did it for years without a problem. The trick is you only give them 1 key, and when you are not expecting the maids you lock the other one on top.

I don't get it. Explain.
 

Atlantis

Well Known GateFan
What I would like to know is that, who in their right mind at Amazon thought that this was a good idea?
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I don't get it. Explain.

Two locks on the single door. When maids are coming, leave the top one unlocked and the maid uses the key to open the lower lock with the handle. When they are not supposed to be coming, lock the deadbolt so that when the lower lock is unlocked by a key the door is still locked by the upper lock.
 

Lord Ba'al

Well Known GateFan
Two locks on the single door. When maids are coming, leave the top one unlocked and the maid uses the key to open the lower lock with the handle. When they are not supposed to be coming, lock the deadbolt so that when the lower lock is unlocked by a key the door is still locked by the upper lock.

I guess that would work if it is possible to lock the deadbolt from the outside.
 

Overmind One

GateFans Gatemaster
Staff member
I guess that would work if it is possible to lock the deadbolt from the outside.
Standard ones can be locked from the outside with a key, or unlocked with a knob on the inside.

$_3.jpg
 

Quetesh

Well Known GateFan
I don't think I have ever seen a deadbolt you can't lock from outside. Yes, OM explained it exactly. Plus you put away your valuables in a place unseen and you have two large barking dogs hidden but heard in your house. It was worth it, since no matter how many hours you work, your house is always clean.

From my experience, they come in teams of four and ride in a company van. They are can't bring any personal belongings with them at all. I worked for one of them many years ago and later used them for 3 years. The don't play around because this is the company's livelihoods. You have to get fingerprinted and full on vetted to work for these places. There is also always one supervisor on the team of four. If anything is reported they hold full on internal and police investigation and these days, I believe they even have cameras in the company vans. They follow tight schedules and if something were to happen at a house, they would know exactly what four people were in that house at what time. Any company that had anything like theft occurring would be shut down and up end going bankrupt. If you use places that have a clean record and have been around for years it is safer than letting in people you don't know that well to your house when you throw a party.
 

Lord Ba'al

Well Known GateFan
I don't think I have ever seen a deadbolt you can't lock from outside.

It is actually very common in the Netherlands, especially on back doors. In fact, I've hardly ever seen deadbolts there which could be locked or unlocked from the outside.

***waiting on pussy's innovative comment***
 
It is actually very common in the Netherlands, especially on back doors. In fact, I've hardly ever seen deadbolts there which could be locked or unlocked from the outside.

***waiting on pussy's innovative comment***

All it takes is the right key, baby. ;)

Seriously though, I'm not sure what you're describing as a "deadbolt". How do you people lock your doors from the outside if not with a keyed deadbolt?
 
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