Amazon’s new In-Home Delivery Program, called Amazon Key, has been all over the tech news recently and unfortunately, most of the feedback has been negative. The tech articles make it sound great, but actual feedback wasn’t.
I’m one that agree with all the negative feedback in that I don’t think this is a good program. To start off, Amazon’s new In-Home Delivery Program allows couriers to open the door to your house and deliver your package inside the house where it’s safe from package thieves.
First, who in their right mind would allow a delivery person to go inside their house when they’re not home?
Second, the way it works opens up opportunities for hackers to unlock your front door as well.
Three, it costs $249.99 for the kit for this to work on top of your Prime subscription. So, you want to pay $250 just so you can have a delivery person go inside your house to only deliver packages from Amazon only? That’s a big NO for me!
Ok, now that I’ve vented about it, let me go into the details of how it works. First, you have to be a Prime member. Then you’ll have to purchase the $249.99 package, which includes a security camera and a Smartlock for your door.
When you are signed up and approved for this program and everything is installed, you can select In-Home delivery when purchasing items from Amazon. Once the courier arrives at your home, they will send a request to the system that will turn on the security camera and unlock the front door.
The courier will then open the door, drop the package off just inside the door and then close the door, at which point the Smartlock will lock the front door. All of this will be recorded on the security camera that you have placed inside the house facing the front door.
At this time, Amazon is only limiting this program for areas where they have their own couriers. They will not allow UPS or FedEx to be a part of this yet. This right here tells me that they don’t trust couriers outside of their own employees. Or, that they would have to outfit UPS and FedEx to be able to send the request to unlock the front door, which is a larger investment either in hardware or opening up software vulnerabilities by connecting UPS/FedEx apps to Amazon services.
It would be a security nightmare to allow UPS and FedEx access to do this. As it is, in my mind, it’s already a security nightmare to allow Amazon couriers to get inside your house.
Who at Amazon thought of this idea? Then, who was the one who approved of this idea?
A better idea would be to create a “delivery box” that you can mount and install in a convenient location at your house. Basically, a personal Amazon locker installed outside of your house that isn’t an eyesore, of course. That way, the courier can put the package inside the locker so that it’s safe from package thieves. Once you get home, you unlock the locker and get your package. The cost of this personal Amazon locker would probably cost less than the $249.99 for the In-Home delivery program.
Sorry to say, but this In-Home Delivery Program from Amazon is just a horrible idea.