Interesting People mailing list archives

Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. - The Washington Post

From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2017 16:43:23 -0500

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/12/07/amazon-wants-a-key-to-your-house-i-did-it-i-regretted-it/?utm_term=.f3fd91b67ab5&wpisrc=nl_tech&wpmm=1

Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it.
We tried Amazon Key. The strangers it let in our door wasn't the worst part.

The Post's Geoffrey A. Fowler tests Amazon Key, a new service that allows Amazon deliverers to open your door with
digital key. (Jhaan Elker, Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)

I gave Amazon.com a key to go into my house and drop off packages when I’m not around. After two weeks, it turns out
letting strangers in has been the least-troubling part of the experience.

Once Amazon owned my door, I was the one locked into an all-Amazon world.

When Amazon first floated the idea of Amazon Key, an Internet-connected lock it can access, people had two responses.
1) THIS IS CREEPY. 2) I kind of want this, so my packages don’t get stolen.

But make no mistake, the $250 Amazon Key isn’t just about stopping thieves. It’s the most aggressive effort I’ve seen
from a tech giant to connect your home to the Internet in a way that puts itself right at the center.

[No matter who you are, Amazon wants you to be using Alexa]

The Amazon Cloud Cam live streams and archives deliveries with Amazon Key. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post, but I review all tech with the same critical eye. So
I put an Amazon-compatible smart lock on my door (installation was included) and hooked up its companion Cloud Cam
nearby to record who comes and goes. Then I ordered enough Amazon packages to earn overtime for Santa’s elves.

The good news is nobody ran off with my boxes — or burgled my house.

The bad news is Amazon missed four of my in-home deliveries and charged me (on top of a Prime membership) for gear that
occasionally jammed and makes it awkward to share my own door with people, apps, services — and, of course, retailers —
other than Amazon.

“Amazon Key has had a positive reception from customers since its launch last month,” Amazon spokeswoman Kristen Kish
said. “There have been situations where we haven’t gotten it right with a delivery and we use these situations to
continue making improvements to the service.”

Big tech companies love building walled gardens, in ham-handed attempts to keep customers loyal. But for an ask this
big (total access to your home, after all), Amazon needs to make Key better.

Amazon Key works with three different smart locks including the Kwikset Convert that we tested, shown here. (Jhaan
Elker/The Washington Post)
Smart locks get a purpose

Amazon’s path to home domination requires persuading Americans to connect appliances and everyday things to the
Internet — thermostats, lights, even water filters. With the Echo speaker and Alexa talking assistant, it’s had more
luck than most companies at getting us interested.

What Amazon gets right is that the so-called smart home has to solve real problems. Smart locks have been around for
years, but Amazon Key finds a real use for them: stopping package theft.

Amazon smartly paired the lock with its security Cloud Cam. Having a camera — which only you can watch, and which must
be powered up for the door to unlock — makes this a little less terrifying. (If the power goes out, you can always open
the door with an old-fashioned key.)

When you use Amazon Key, you get a phone alert with a window when a delivery might occur. If no one is home, the
delivery person taps an app that grants one-time access to unlock your door, places the package inside, then relocks
the door. (They don’t recommend Key if you have a pet, and won’t come in if they hear barking.) The moment the door
unlocks, the Cloud Cam starts recording — and sends you a live stream of the whole thing. It’s a surreal 15 seconds.

Amazon's delivery people are all business. When we left cookies and a sign, shown here, they didn't bite. (Geoffrey A.
Fowler/The Washington Post)
Even if your family runs on Prime shipping, this scenario would likely test your faith in Amazon. There are certainly
less-invasive ways to keep packages safe, like lockboxes or shipping to the office. The company promises deliveries are
only made by carriers that Amazon thinks are trustworthy. (The drivers are contractors vetted by Amazon’s own
background check vendor.) It also says that it will “correct the problem” if your property gets damaged. (In the fine
print, you also agree to arbitration, rather than a lawsuit, if something goes really wrong.)

Amazon’s drivers earned high marks for discretion. Most of them opened the door just enough to slide in a package. None
of them stopped to use the toilet. None of them took a cookie — not even when I set some by the door with a card.

The Amazon workers are no doubt aware they’re under digital surveillance. Amazon’s systems monitor their whereabouts
before they can unlock the door, and when they lock it again.

If only it worked

Worry about a creepy driver turned out to just be the beginning of Amazon Key’s problems.

The other reason smart home tech has been a tough slog for Silicon Valley is that houses come in so many shapes and
ages. And there’s a lot at stake if tech fails where you live.

My Amazon Key setup was finicky, even though Amazon sent someone to help. My installer was friendly, but found a
problem with my decades-old door he wasn’t authorized to fix — the spot where the deadbolt went into the frame slightly
misaligned. I paid a locksmith $100 for a new strike plate, which was Amazon’s recommendation.

That wasn’t enough. From time to time, my Kwikset Convert lock makes a screech that would alarm a hyena, and flashes a
warning in the Key app about jamming.

Even worse, that happened during an Amazon delivery. Fortunately, the driver kept trying until the door actually
locked. Amazon said it thinks my lock is not properly installed. I also might have had a better experience with one of
the two other compatible smart locks, whose designs are bulkier.

Then I heard Amazon Key got hacked. Researchers found a way a rogue delivery person could cause the security camera to
freeze and then potentially lurk in your house. Amazon said customers weren’t really at risk, but pushed a software
update to provide quicker notifications if the camera goes offline during delivery.

The biggest head scratcher: Of eight in-home deliveries, Amazon missed its original delivery window on four of them. It
sent some inaccurate alerts about when packages might arrive, which is especially unnerving when drivers might be
entering your house. (The packages all arrived eventually, a day or more late.) This is a record-breaking online
shopping season, but this is the part of the business I expect Amazon to get right.

Amazon drivers making in-home deliveries knock first, then use an app that grants one-time access to unlock the door.
(Geoffrey A. Fowler/The Washington Post)
Who owns your door?

When you add Amazon Key to your door, something more sneaky also happens: Amazon takes over.

You can leave your keys at home and unlock your door with the Amazon Key app — but it’s really built for Amazon
deliveries. To share online access with family and friends, I had to give them a special code to SMS (yes, text) to
unlock the door. (Amazon offers other smartlocks that have physical keypads).

The Key-compatible locks are made by Yale and Kwikset, yet don’t work with those brands’ own apps. They also can't
connect with a home-security system or smart-home gadgets that work with Apple and Google software.

And, of course, the lock can’t be accessed by businesses other than Amazon. No Walmart, no UPS, no local dog-walking
company.

Keeping tight control over Key might help Amazon guarantee security or a better experience. “Our focus with smart home
is on making things simpler for customers — things like providing easy control of connected devices with your voice
using Alexa, simplifying tasks like reordering household goods and receiving packages,” the Amazon spokeswoman said.

But Amazon is barely hiding its goal: It wants to be the operating system for your home. Amazon says Key will
eventually work with dog walkers, maids and other service workers who bill through its marketplace. An Amazon home
security service and grocery delivery from Whole Foods can’t be far off. (Walmart has announced plans to test
delivering groceries straight to the refrigerator with a smart lock maker called August.)

The Switch newsletter
The day's top stories on the world of tech.
Amazon said it doesn’t have access to data about when you lock your door or the video feed from the Cloud Cam — both
good things. But surely its data team is also crunching the numbers on how Key changes your consumer behavior,
especially whether you are buying more stuff from Amazon.

What’s so bad about living in an all-Amazon house? The company doesn’t always have the best prices, or act in ways that
benefit consumers. For example, it’s currently in a spat with Google, whose smart-home products like Chromecast and
Google Home are not carried by Amazon — and who retaliated by blocking access to its YouTube apps on some Amazon
products. (Grow up, you two!)

After two weeks, my family voted to remove the Amazon Key smart lock and take down the camera.

Amazon Key did give me some peace of mind about delivery theft. But the trade-off is giving more power over your life
to a company that probably already has too much.

Current thread:

Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. - The Washington Post Dave Farber (Dec 07)
- Message not available
  - Fwd: Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. - The Washington Post Dave Farber (Dec 07)
- Message not available
  - Fwd: Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. - The Washington Post Dave Farber (Dec 08)