Thursday, October 26, 2017

Amazon Key: Have Packages Dropped INSIDE your home... Wait, What?


Ever have you had packages stolen from your porch?
Are you never home because you work dawn til dusk?
Do you share your entire life with the world via social media?

Then you're probably a Millennial and Amazon Key is for you.

While the concept stands to reason that controlling one of the oldest interfaces in your home with an Internet-Connected interface, might be a step into the future, it's down-right scary to anyone older than 35.  Read the top comment on the above video to see the harsh rejection that has come from the public. It's fairly clear that the general public does not believe that Amazon has their interests at heart.


Personally, I have Internet-Connected (Nest) Cameras all over my house so that I can see the activity OUTSIDE of my home.  While I do have one camera INSIDE, its squarely pointed at the family pet (our Cockatiel, who rarely leaves his cage).   I am probably one of the few who would be willing to have a delivery person drop off a package inside the house, but my spouse would not.  But I can definitely see why many people reject this concept.

One of the last bastions of defense and security to our private lives is opened to a total stranger through the use of Amazon Key. While the actor in the video may be acting like the trust-worthy face of Amazon, we do not know what the Amazon delivery driver in our local town is like.  Is Amazon willing to back the possibly liability issues that may occur with this service?  Is the added fee enough to cover insurance claims when it fails?

Amazon is a huge company and there is probably more to the suggestion of Amazon Key than merely offering a different sort of security for packages and entry to our homes.  Like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri, the large data mining corporations of this age want all that they can get from us, and access to our homes is likely the greatest gold mine of all.  Where does it stop, or does it stop?

It starts and stops with each of us.  While these corporations have the money to launch a concept to offer features that might be pleasing, there is no mandate to use these offers.  Like Facebook, the choice to post our personal information belongs to each of us; the choice to allow Amazon into our homes is also in our power.  Of course they have a great, fast delivery service, with an immense library of products, but we are the customers and we have the option choose (thankfully).






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