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Amazon Key Puts Deliveries -- And Delivery People -- In Your Home (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Rushing home to sign for a package can be a chore, and nothing craters a day like having a delivery stolen from your doorstep. The question Amazon asks with its new Key app and Cloud security camera: Are those annoyances enough to let a delivery person into your home, unattended, to drop off a box? The answer should present itself soon enough, at least in the 37 cities in which Amazon will launch its new in-home delivery service as of November 8. There, customers who purchase an Amazon Cloud Cam, own a compatible smart lock, and download the accompanying Amazon Key app can grant access for in-home deliveries -- and watch the drop-offs live, remotely. The system, exclusive for Prime members, costs $250 to get started, a price that includes both the camera and a smart lock from either Kwikset or Yale. (You can also buy the cameras individually for $120, with a slight discount applied for buying multiples.) And while Amazon has gone to some lengths to minimize the creepiness of a definitionally invasive service, it still forces potential enlistees to consider just what kind of trade-offs they're willing to make in the name of convenience. Amazon says that in-home delivery will be available for "tens of millions" of items, whether it's sent same-day, standard, or any shipping method in between. As for those safety measures: Amazon's doing what it can to ensure that strangers don't game its system.
I am pretty sure that is exactly what is going to happen.
No. Just no freakin' way. The folks they will hire as delivery folks aren't going to be well paid. I can see casing your house for a later robbery as being a helluva lot more lucrative. Having "cloud security" just means it's probably not working as well as a normal security system or being used/hijacked as a DDoS zombie. Call me a Luddite, but I gotta say "Not just no. Hell no, Amazon."
I thought they were going to be delivering everything by drone and/or autonomous vehicles. I'm sure people will jump on this. Only $250 to protect Amazon from refunding people from stolen packages? Sign me up!
You should have used Prime...
I can see a new house style with either a second building like an external garage or an isolated room with its own door, with a fridge/freezer just for Amazon or other deliveries. One door would be for the deliveryperson to drop off the goodies, and another person could just open it up when inside to get stuff. That way, if the lock was forced or compromised, it wouldn't mean access to the entire house.
Install a dropbox to receive packages. Same thing UPS and FedEx use. Easy to put stuff in, but hard to get anything out unless you have the key to open it.
The key sequence to access my Slashdot bookmark in Firefox is Alt-B-S. I don't believe this is a coincidence.
Get a mailbox at the UPS store or other private mail box store. They will accept packages and you can pick them up later at the store. I think the next step for Amazon will be to want access to the fridge to put things away. This way does not open the house up or require a lock that is on the internet and subject to hacking.
Okay, first off, the one thing that they do right in this whole thing is that it's literally "buy in" (rather than opt in), because you have to purchase the lock/camera/scanner tech-package. If you don't want this service, don't buy the damn thing.
But I don't think they've really thought this out in terms of how the public is going to respond. I mean, I don't like rushing home to sign for a package, but then, I live in an apartment building, so they're supposed to be leaving the packages at the front office anyway.
But you know what else I don't like? People being in my apartment at all without my knowledge. And here's the thing... Amazon contracts out their deliveries. Who's delivering the package? Are _they_ fully trained on this system? And what time constraints are they already under?
Let me explain that last one. FedEx Ground drivers get paid based on the number of packages they deliver. They are under time crunches to deliver as many packages as possible in their day. So, what's going to happen?
Ground driver shows up, sees you have the scanner/camera thing, scans the bar code, waits for the response (hope the internet connection is good), waits for the door to unlock, puts the package inside, close the door (and make sure it locks?), and go on to the next delivery...
--- OR ----
Ground driver shows up, rings bell, ignores scanner, leaves package on front stoop or takes it back with him.
Does the lock package for the door automatically close and lock the door? If it doesn't, is the driver liable for not locking the door and anything that results because of that?
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Oh so now it's a key? 15 days ago it was a doorbell.
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/10/10/2043216/amazon-is-reportedly-building-a-doorbell-that-lets-drivers-into-your-house
I heard an interview last week with one of their "drivers" who got arrested for using heroin while driving....they found a bunch of amazon packages in his trunk and thought they caught a porch thief. But noooo, he had all the right creds to prove he was a delivery driver. He had just got out of prison for home robbery, the car he was using was stolen, he was on heroin and he had no divers license....this is who they want to give access to my house while I am at work? HAHAHA, they are going to get sued until their crying over this one.
How many times do we have to read about this story?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I've met some of the Amazon delivery drivers, and I wouldn't trust any of them with the key to my mailbox, let alone the key to my house.
How about a big cup of NO!
Wal-Mart wants to deliver to your fridge.
https://thenextweb.com/business/2017/09/22/walmart-fires-back-at-amazon-with-new-direct-to-fridge-service/
In my area Amazon does a lot of their own delivery, especially on same day or next day Prime. Out of the 12 things I've bought from them using their own couriers only 8 ever got to me. USPS, FedEx, and UPS have all been 100% during that time. I think maybe Amazon should focus on actually getting to my house before they worry about whether or not I'll let them inside.
I find this hilarious that Walmart comes out with similar service and it gets poo pooâ(TM)d. Slap Amazon next to it, genius! Iâ(TM)ll pass on both!
Just buy a large secure drop-box. Then any company can use it, and nobody can get to your parcels.
Hell, stick a cheap Wifi camera on it so you can see who's playing about with it from your phone.
Giving away literal access to your entire home, as well as 24/7 access to a camera inside your property, to allow someone to deposit a parcel is ludicrous and unnecessary given cheaper, better alternatives that don't tie you into a company like Amazon.
Am I the only one that thinks this is VERY creepy?
I wonder how many people are going to come home to find Fluffy outside because it got out when the door opened.
Well hopefully Fluffy stays away from the road.
Their old business model was similar, but without the cameras:
https://www.schwans.com/
When I was a kid, you'd give them the house key and they would show up while you at work and put stuff in your refrigerator and freezer. It looks like they don't do that anymore.
Do you have ESP?
Sarah Cooper: "I used to be an Amazon Key courier, now I'm your roommate" (From Twitter)
Maybe now I can have Amazon deliver something and when they unlock the door, I can escape from this Ecuadorian embassy and finally clear my name!
You are welcome on my lawn.
You can enter my home when you pry my keys out of my cold dead fingers.
Are you even reading other comments in this thread?
The consensus appears to be "This is a bad idea, Amazon"
I don't think it's nearly as creepy as those things that record everything going on.
I don't respond to AC's.
With this as an option, Amazon just looks like a creepy stalker ex. "C'mon, just let me in, okay?" Save money, don't take the risk of getting a shocking suprise when you get home (delivery driver's friends.)
So let me get this straight: you have web-connected cameras and microphones IN YOUR HOME, and you're going to let strangers INTO YOUR HOME when you're not there, just to drop off some goddamned package? Really? Are you insane!?
I've warned about shit like this for years and years now, and I've always been scoffed at; "LOL you're paranoid, nobody is going to put cameras and microphones in our houses, that's crazy talk!". But here we are, in 2017, and you're voluntarily putting cameras and microphones in your houses. You actually do this, you get what you deserve.
If they don't deliver a package to your house they just bring it to a local shop for pickup.
Or you could do what I did and make a steel box bolted to the porch. lid has a spring latch that locks when closed, with a sign that says deliveries here and close lid... done. only way to open it and reset the latch is with a key.. never had a delivery stolen from this.
Many decades ago, some people would give their milkman a key so that he could put the milk etc. in the icebox. However, you knew who the milkman was and probably where he lived.
Bolt a box with a lock next to your mailbox. Lock the door and leave it open. When they deliver the package they close the door.
I think the next step for Amazon will be to want access to the fridge to put things away.
That is already part of the service if you are buying perishable items through them. It isn't "the next step".
Does your UPS store have a freezer/fridge to store your Amazon deliveries?
To those who post things like "no way", ok, we get it. Not every service that every company might provide is something you'd want to use. That doesn't mean there aren't people who will want this, and most of them don't care that you don't. In fact, I'm guessing that the only person who really cares that you don't want this service is ... you.
sign up with UPS / FedEx to have all packages for your address held for pickup at a local UPS / FedEx store. I have mine setup to default to this. UPS is a block away, FedEx is 3 or 4 miles and on my way home from work. No more worries about packages exposed to weather, curious kids, thieves etc... works for me.
My voice is my passport. Verify me.
Next up from Bezos:
Too busy sitting on the can to answer the door when the delivery guy shows up? Introducing Amazon Toilet. Just press a button and your delivery man will come to you, wipe you clean, and deliver your package right into your hands! Be sure to wash.
...to kick some Amazon C*O in the nuts. Just once, please...
Here is one thing. Most of us arenâ(TM)t completely brainwashed by Amazon. Talking to some Chicago millennials, they canâ(TM)t wait. All to trusting. What could go wrong?
No thanks!
This is the stupidest god-damned idea I've heard of in a while.